In Sleep You Will Be Safe
by catchaday
Summary: Booth and Brennan have a new case. Will they be able to solve it before it becomes personal? Definite BB.maybe Hodgela. Rating just in case, and this is my first ever fic so please R&R.
1. No Rest For The Righteous

**Ok everyone this is my first ever fic so please please please R&R. constructive criticism welcome. Thanks to ktlyn for encouraging me and this story. **

**Disclaimer: sadly I do not own Bones or any of the characters. **

Chapter 1: No Rest For The Righteous

Temperance awoke to the shrill sound of her mobile phone ringing from her bedside table. Rolling over in bed, she squinted at the digital clock – 3:36am. Groaning, she picked up her phone, mainly to stop the incessant ringing.

"Brennan" she said into the phone, her voice still thick with sleep. Booth replied on the other end of the line.

"Oh, hey Bones. Sorry, did I wake you?" She did not dignify him with an answer.

"What do you want, Booth?"

"I've got a new case for you, Bones." That woke her up properly.

"Oh, right!" she scrambled out of bed and flicked the bedroom light on. Blinking, she asked, "What are the specifics?"

"Well, I don't have much at the moment. Only what Cullen told me over the phone. How about I tell you everything I know in the car on the way there. I'll come pick you up."

"Alright. How far away are you? Do I have time for a quick shower?" she asked, now pulling clothes hastily from her drawers.

Yes, if you're quick. I'm just leaving now, so I'll be there in about 15 minutes."

"Ok, see you then." She barely waited for his answering "see ya", before snapping her phone shut and rushing into the shower.

15 minutes later Booth stood outsides her apartment and knocked on the door.

"Just a second!" he heard her call from inside and about 5 seconds later Temperance opened the door. "Hey Booth!" she said energetically while pulling her hair up into a ponytail.

"Hey Bones. Ready to roll?" Booth flashed her his trademark charm smile.

She gave him a confused look. "I don't know what that means. But if you're asking if I'm ready, then the answer is yes, right after I get my bag." Booth rolled his eyes as she disappeared into the lounge and came back with her forensics bag. "Alright, lets go." She locked the door behind her and followed Booth down to his car. Temperance glared at him when he opened the passenger door for her. Booth considered it a victory when she didn't berate him for it like usual.

"So what have you got for me?" she asked once they had started driving.

"Some remains found in Tauride Park, in a wooded area, by a couple of teenagers around 1:00 this morning."

"What were they doing in a park at 1 in the morning?"

"Dunno. Nothing suspicious I don't think. The local cop who talked to them reckoned they were just mucking around, smoking or something, being rebellious. The usual, you know."

"No, I don't know" she replied bluntly and Booth hid a smile. "How did they come across the remains?"

"Apparently they first saw lights under the trees. They went to check it out and saw the bones surrounded by candles and some other weird things. That's all I got from Cullen."

Temperance stayed silent until Booth glanced over. "Bones? What do you think?"

She didn't shift her gaze from the windscreen in front of her. "Well I shouldn't really make any assumptions about the unusual surroundings until I've seen them."

"But you must have some idea."

"Hmm, well from what you've described it sounds like some sort of shrine or something…" she trailed off. Seeing she was deep in thought again, Booth left her to it, driving the rest of the way in silence.

When they arrived they were greeted by a tall, dark-haired policeman.

"Morning sir. You must be Agent Booth. They told me you were coming. I'm Officer Ethan Woods." he shook Booth's hand.

"Yes, I'm Agent Booth and this is Dr. Temperance Brennan, Forensic Anthropologist for the Jeffersonian Institute." Woods extended his hand to her also and, taking it, she asked "So where are the remains?" Booth hid another smile. Nothing will distract my Bones from the task at hand. Booth admired Woods' quick recovery from his partner's accidental rudeness as he gestured across the grassed are of the park.

"Right this way ma'm." he led them across the dark grass, their way lit only by the torches of other cops on the scene, to the other side. "Here we are." Woods said to them, although they hardly needed the indication. The scene in front of them was the only source of light for several feet around them and behind it the trees loomed before retreating into pitch blackness.

Temperance took a step forward, away from the two men, and surveyed the scene. About ten feet into the trees a dark crimson cloth was draped over a raised box, flowing onto the ground in front. On top of the box sat countless candles and even more rested on the cloth-covered ground, each emitting their own tiny pool of light. Also, strewn amongst all the candles, were many groups of golden flowers. Artistically placed amidst the candles and flowers were several delicately painted masks. Each mask appeared slightly different but all had one similarity- every one was decorated to resemble a human skull.

Two masks on the ground, which were supported by the front of the box, were edged with thick, bushy manes of white hair.

"Creepy." Temperance heard Booth mutter behind her. And indeed the weak flickering light from the candles gave the masks a very eerie look. Their black eye sockets seeming to watch you from where they rested. In the middle of all this, laid out neatly on the crimson ground, was the skeleton. After studying the bones Temperance relayed her findings.

"Female. Caucasian. I'd say between the ages of 50 and 65. Fractured radius. Ligature marks on wrists and ankles suggest she was bound and struggled against her restraints. There are also small markings all over the bones, perhaps made from small animals." Temperance cautiously picked up one of the masks, fingering it and tilting it to catch the light. "Yes, like I said before, a kind of shrine or altar…" her gaze shifted to the raised part of the 'altar'. Putting the mask down carefully, she moved round behind it.

"Bones? What's up?" Curious, and not liking how her position hid her from the light and from him, Booth followed to stand beside her. From there he saw what had caught her attention; a small, silver photo frame, facing forwards. Placed right at the back of the 'altar' it had been obscured from view by darkness and the flowers surrounding it. Temperance picked it up and flipped it over. In it was an elderly woman, smiling at something to the left of the camera.

"It's not…?" Booth gestured to the remains lying before them, unable to voice the disturbing thought, temperance peered closer at the photo.

"No, I think this woman is Hispanic. But we can get Angela to confirm it when we get everything back to the lab and she can do a facial reconstruction."

Booth nodded. "Alright then. Are you done here? We should get all this bagged and sent to the lab. Cullen wants it gone ASAP. Preferably before the Press and public appear. We don't really want an audience for this." They walked back out of the trees and Booth spoke to Officer Woods, who waved over an evidence team.

"Right boys. Bag it all, then we want it delivered to the Jeffersonian." The group converged n the crime scene.

"Wait!" Everyone stopped. "Booth what time is it?"

"Uh, ten to five."

"Ok." Temperance addressed the evidence team. "Blow out the candles now and when you bag them make sure you get all the melted wax too. We'll be able to determine how long all this has been here by the amount of wax that has melted." They nodded like obedient school children and she turned away. "Ok, lets go."

Booth shook hands with Officer Woods again, then guided Temperance across the park, still in darkness, towards the car with on hand on the small of her back. He smiled into the darkness when she didn't break his arm for touching her. His efforts to humanise her were definitely working.

**Well? What did you think? Go on just click the little button below. **

**Oh and just for your entertainment, ktlyn came up with an alternate answer to Brennan's question at the start. "Do I have time for a shower?" Booth: "yes, but only if I can join you!" **


	2. Of Questions and Answers

**Here's the next chapter guys. Thank you so much for you great reviews! Keep it up. I really hope you like this one.**

**Disclaimer: if I owned anything then I wouldn't need this disclaimer now would I?**

Chapter 2: Of Questions and Answers

When Angela arrived at 9 Temperance was hovering over the examining table where a skeleton was carefully arranged and speaking into her Dictaphone. Angela swiped her card and mounted the steps, moving over to the table.

"Hey Bren, this is a new one." She said cheerfully. Temperance put down the Dictaphone and smiled at her best friend.

"We got it this morning. In fact I'm glad you're here because I need you to reconstruct this face for me."

"Sure Hon, whenever you're finished with it."

"Oh I'm already done." Temperance picked up the skull and handed it to Angela, who looked at her, perplexed.

"Bren honey, how long have you _been_ here?"

"Since five." Temperance replied nonchalantly.

"Five!" Angela spluttered. "What the on earth were you doing here at five in the morning? It still would have been _dark_. I mean, I know you're a workaholic and all but coming in to work at five when I bet you only left at about nine last night is…"

"Angela!" Temperance cut her off. "It wasn't my intention to come in that early, but Booth got me up at 3:30 to go to the crime scene where these remains were found and by the time we were finished there was no point in going back home, so Booth just dropped me off here so I could start on our victim. Okay?"

Bypassing everything else Temperance had just told her, Angela grinned widely. "Oh so Booth was with you before you got up this morning?"

Temperance looked at her like she was insane. "What? No."

"But you just said that _Booth_ got you up this morning." She said mischievously.

Sighing, Temperance realised what her friend was trying to get at. "No Angela. Booth _rang _me this morning. From _his_ place. And stop it! Booth and I are partners, alright?"

Angela let out a sigh of her own, although she had no intention of letting this go. At that moment Booth appeared below the platform. "Ooh speak of the devil!" Angela said as he swiped his card and came up the stairs.

Booth mirrored Angela's broad grin. "Talking about me now, are we ladies?"

"No." Temperance said, quickly switching her attention to the bones in front of her. Booth raised an eyebrow at her, still smiling.

"Right well I'm off. I've got work to do." Angela said very seriously, indicating the skull in her hands. She took one step away, then spun back around on her heels. "Oh, and Booth," she said, all innocence. "Just so you know, it's far more polite if you at least sleep with a woman before you drag her out of bed in the wee hours of the morning to look at dead people."

Temperance's head snapped up. "Angela!" But Angela was already off and halfway to her office, a grin spreading from ear to ear.

Booth stood there, now with both eyebrows raised. There was an awkward pause, then he laughed. "Man, she's a piece of work!"

Temperance's face was burning, for once she had actually understood what Angela was insinuating. "No," she glared daggers at Angela's office door, "she's rude. And interfering. And convinced she is right about everything."

Booth laughed and threw an arm round her shoulders. "That seems to have become a bit of a theme around here, don't you think Bones?" The gesture had been casual but suddenly Booth was very aware of how close he was to her. He felt the sudden urge to reach up and brush her hair away from her flushed cheek.

Temperance had been mortified at Angela's comment and had covered her discomfort with anger. When Booth had put his arm around her however, both feelings disappeared. Now she didn't know what to feel. She didn't know what to _do. _So she reverted back to the one thing she _did _know about: her work. She took a step away from him, ignoring the unexpected feeling of loss when cold air replaced the warmth of Booth's arm around her.

"The fracture to the left radius is consistent with someone trying to protect themselves. It's most likely that she fell on something hard, like concrete, when her hands were bound in front of her, so instead of putting out her hands to break her fall she had to use her arms. The small markings I mentioned earlier were made by rats eating away the surrounding tissue. I've got Angela working on the face now. How did you go with the photo?"

When she shifted away from him Booth had felt regret, but then he told himself that he was glad she had moved away, before he'd done anything stupid. _What had got into him? He must be tired from the ridiculously early start this morning. Yes, that was it._ Booth ignored the tiny voice in the back of his mind calling him a horrible liar.

"I couldn't get any ID from the photo, and I ran those dental records you sent through, they didn't come up with a name for us either. So did you work out how she died?" he grimaced, "It wasn't the…the rats. Was it?"

"No. she died before the rats got to her. A knife cut to the throat. Clean across, right through to the vertebrae." Booth nodded, then glanced around the lab.

"Hey, where are your other two squints?"

Temperance frowned. "I honestly have no idea. They're half an hour late. Which is actually an hour late for them because they are normally here half an hour early."

" I bet that toy Hodgins calls a car broke down." Booth said, remembering the last time he had to ride in that death trap with a few busted ribs, a broken arm and a severely bruised body.

"Well if they aren't here soon I'll have to ring them. And they better have a damn good reason for being late."

"I've got the crime scene photos here. Want to have a look?"

"Sure."

Booth spread them out on one of the desks and they both started looking through them, although neither of them gathered much information from their search. Ten minutes later Zach and Hodgins arrived. Temperance glared at them as they approached.

"And where have you been?"

Hodgins didn't even flinch. Zach at least had the decency, or in this case it was probably common sense, to look slightly abashed.

"My car!" Hodgins exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. "My car broke down just before we got on the freeway and we had to wait aeons before some incompetent imbecile finally came to tow it. Then we had to catch a cab here. Unbelievable!"

"Hah! I was right!" Booth said loudly, standing next to the table, his chest puffed out. He grinned childishly down at Temperance sitting in her chair. "See, Bones. That just proves my gut can be right. So there!"

"Booth that was a lucky guess and had nothing to do with your _gut._" But she couldn't help returning his infectious smile, especially when he retorted, "But I was still right!" obviously very proud of himself. Hodgins just glared at the frustratingly cocky agent.

"Right, well now you're here you can start working." Temperance told them, getting up from her chair. "Zach, there's not much left to do on the remains but over here in this evidence box there are some candles collected from the crime scene. They were blown out at 4:50 this morning. Can you give us a time frame?"

"Yes Dr. Brennan." Zach picked up the plastic box and moved off to a clear table.

"What are these?" Temperance turned around to see Hodgins looking at the photos still spread across the desk. Booth answered him. "They're photos of the crime scene. Although we don't know what it's actually meant to be." Hodgins picked up a picture that showed a clear shot of the entire mysterious scene.

"I think I know."

**Was that very cruel of me? I'm sorry, but I didn't have time to write up the rest of the chapter and I won't be able to for a couple of days. So it was either give you this much now or make you wait for the whole thing. So what did you think? Reviews make my creative juices flow!**


	3. Of Questions and Answers:part b

**Hi everybody. thank you so much for your latest reviews. I am so sorry I haven't updated in a while but my internet stuffed up and I couldn't get on to fanfic, but it's working now lol. This chapter isn't exactly my best but the information in it is important so please bear with me.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bones or any of the characters : (**

Chapter 3: Of Questions and Answers: part b

_"I think I know."_

Hodgins moved quickly over to a computer and turned it on. He typed a few words into a search engine while Temperance crossed the platform to stand behind him, with Booth following her. He clicked on one of the links and a brightly coloured webpage appeared on the screen. At the top of the page in bold lettering was the heading 'Día de los Muertos'. A sound of recognition came from Temperance. Booth stayed silent, waiting impatiently for an explanation. Looking over a group of pictures at the bottom of the page Hodgins clicked on one and it expanded to fill the screen. Booth didn't have to wait for someone to explain the picture to him.

" That looks a lot like our altar-thing!" he gestured at the computer screen.

"Yeah, minus the skeleton." Hodgins joked.

The picture was very similar to their crime scene. The candles and flowers were there as well as the masks and a photo in the centre. But the photo was of a different person and there were only three masks and there were also lots of what looked like tiny, pebble-sized skulls in groups all over the place.

"So what _we_ have is a version of a Día de los Muertos altar?" Temperance asked Hodgins.

"Yes. Although it doesn't really make sense in connection to the remains…"

"No, you're right, it doesn't. The religious implications are not those of sacrifice or…"

"Ahem" Booth cleared his throat to attract their attention. "Hello! Explanation for the unenlightened individual over here please."

"Oh, sorry." Temperance apologised.

"Alright I'll explain, shall I?" Hodgins asked. He turned to Booth. "Día de los Muertos, translated as Day of the Dead, is a festival, mainly celebrated in Mexico."

"Oh right, I've heard of that."

"Most people have. It is held every year on the 1st and 2nd of November – the catholic All Saints day and All Souls day – to remember and honour ancestors, whose spirits they believe visit the earth once a year. People will spend the day in cemeteries and some dress up as _Calacas_ or masked figures, with skull masks and costumes, like skeletons. They make altars or _Ofrendas_ to the deceased relatives or friends. It is traditional to use candles and incense, pictures of the deceased and masks, and flowers: usually the _Calendula officinalis_ or Marigolds. Most people also choose to personalise the altars as well with trinkets or favourite foods of the deceased. It's also quite popular nowadays to decorate them with sugarskulls –small imitations of skulls made of spun sugar." Hodgins explained.

"Apparently imitations weren't enough for our guy." Booth said, sourly. "He wanted the real thing." He paused. "Isn't this all a bit morbid? I mean dressing up as skeletons and putting skull masks on altars?" Booth asked both of them.

Hodgins rolled his eyes. "No. You _would_ think that, but you see in Mexico skulls are considered symbols of life and regeneration. So really it's not morbid at all, it's...respectful, a cheerful event."

There was a short pause while everyone digested the information, then Temperance spoke.

"There's only one problem with this theory." Hodgins looked at her indignantly; Booth curiously.

"What Bones?"

She looked from one man to the other. "It's not November." It took Booth a few seconds to understand the problem. Hodgins frowned.

"Hmm, you're right. It's only August."

"But it shouldn't really matter too much, should it? We can be pretty certain that this guy's a nutter right? He's probably not very worried about the month of the year." Booth said.

Temperance didn't like Booth's flip attitude over the anomaly, but restrained herself from arguing with him. Angela had just reappeared, and she was always telling her that her constant bickering with Booth was a clear sign of pent up sexual tension. Of course the idea was ridiculous but she wasn't going add fuel to the fire.

"Alright everyone." Angela addressed them. "I've got a face for our victim." She led them all to the Angelator and they arranged themselves around it. She brought up a 3D image of an older woman. She had short, white hair, a rounded nose, thin lips, and the wrinkles of ageing around her eyes, mouth and forehead.

"Well it's not the woman in the photo, that's for sure." Booth said.

"No." Temperance agreed. "It's not."

"Ok then. I'll go back to the Bureau and see if I can get us a name to match this face. If you guys find anything else, give me a call. I'll be back today if I get a name, otherwise probably not until tomorrow." Booth nodded to Angela and Hodgins, smiled at Temperance and walked out of the room. Her and Hodgins followed behind him.

Once outside the room, Temperance turned to face the entomologist. "Jack, if you don't have anything else to do, could you go and help Zach? I'm just going to finish up my notes from this morning."

"Sure." Hodgins replied and walked off to the table Zach was working diligently at.

Temperance turned her head and watched as Booth walked the rest of the way to the outer doors of the lab. Angela came out and stood beside her, also watching Booth walk swiftly away.

"Sweetie" she said kindly. "If you'd only open your eyes for just a second, you would see how much that man cares for you. And you for him."

"You're wrong Angela." She replied tiredly. "We're just partners."

"I'm not. You know I saw you two on the platform, laughing and talking? And when Booth put his arm around you? Why else would you jump a mile when he touched you?" Angela smiled caringly at her. "Honey please, just think about it? You'll soon see." She gave her another small smile, then turned and walked away, drawing pad in hand.

"You're wrong." Temperance said again to her retreating back, but she kept walking and turned a corner, out of sight. "You're wrong."

**I hope it wasn't too bad. Please review and tell me what you thought -first reviewer gets a lollipop! p.s. the more reviews I get, the faster I update. : )**


	4. And Then There Were Two

**So here's my next chapter...finally! I'm so sorry for taking so long but, well, i guess life got in the way. school+evil teachers+homeworkNo time to write new chapters! sorry again. I hope you enjoy it.**

Chapter 4: And Then There Were Two

_Thud…thud…thud. The ball repeatedly hit the wall and bounced off; hit the wall and bounced off. The boy kicking it continuously was small with mussed black hair and tanned skin. He stood up the back of an alley that bent round in an 'L' shape behind one of the buildings next to it. He was all alone. Thud…thud…thud. The ball rebounded off the brick wall._

_He saw the boy in the alley from across the street. He stopped to look at him. Thud…thud… the boy missed the ball and it bounced off in the direction of the street beyond. The boy pursued it and bent to pick it up in the entrance to the alleyway. When he straightened up, the boy raised his head, then his eyes, and glanced across the street. His eyes connected with the boy's. He half raised a hand in greeting. The boy just stood and stared solemnly back. A long moment stretched out as they stood silently, staring. Then he blinked, and the boy turned away, back down the alley between the two brick buildings. Thud…thud…thud. He stood mutely. Thud…thud…thud. He raised his foot and took a step across the street. Thud…thud…_

* * *

Striding through the door of the lab the next morning, Booth immediately scanned around for his partner. Not seeing her anywhere in the lab, he made a beeline for her office. He reached her open door and, surprise surprise, there she was, hard at work at her desk. He would have teased her about it if his own reason for being there hadn't been so grave. Booth took a step forward and knocked on the door frame.

* * *

Temperance had spent the majority of the morning at her desk sorting through and typing up her notes because, for once, she didn't have much else to do. Yesterday Zach and Hodgins had determined that the candles had been lit around 12:30 that morning. Hodgins had also discovered some particles of soil on the bones, but he soon identified it as a form of Andisol soil, which unfortunately didn't help at all as it is on of the most common kinds of soil in the state. Booth had been unable to ID the face of the dead woman. So for now Temperance and the squints were stuck until Booth could bring them more information to work with. As it happened, they were about to get their wish, although not in the manner they were hoping for. 

At the knock on her door, Temperance looked up from her computer to see Booth in her doorway. She gave him a small smile and leaned back into her chair.

"Hey Booth."

"Hey Bones." He made a pathetic attempt to return her smile. "Come on grab your coat. We're going."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Where are we going exactly?"

"Stuart Street. They've found another body."

She stood up from her chair. "Another one? The same as our vic from yesterday?"

"From what I've been told the scene's almost identical. Apart from the different locations."

She nodded grimly and put on her coat. "Let's go then."

They arrived at the crime scene fifteen minutes later. Stuart Street was a small side road lined with modest stores and rundown apartments. Booth stopped the car halfway down the street where other police cars were parked. Several cops were milling around, many of whom were trying to keep the growing crowd of onlookers at bay. Temperance and Booth got out of the car and made their way over to a lone policeman, standing guard next to the yellow tape that indicated the perimeter of the crime scene. The tape was stretched across a dank and narrow alleyway between two shops. When they reached the cop Booth held out his hand for the policeman to shake.

"Hi, I'm Special Agent Booth from the FBI and this is Dr. Brennan."

The rather stout looking cop took Booth's hand in a firm grip. "Of course, sir. I'm sergeant Roach." He leaned towards Booth, and in a conspiratorial whisper, said "I hear we've got a serial killer on our hands."

Booth frowned. "Sergeant…Roach, was it? I suggest that you tell your colleagues to stop spreading rumours about my crime scene before I have even arrived, and before Dr. Brennan has had the chance to examine it."

The sergeant looked slightly mutinous over the reproach but had the common sense not to start an argument. "Yes, sir."

Booth nodded and got back to business. "So who found the remains?"

"Well the owner of this pet store here, Mr. Copeland, found it late this morning when he went out the back to dump a few rubbish bags. That's when he spotted the…uh…remains. Just outside his back door." Sergeant Roach indicated the shop to the left of the alley.

"Alright, well I'll need to talk to that owner in a minute, and probably any of the staff too."

"Yes sir. He's just inside. Whenever you need to talk to him…" Booth nodded and peered down the empty alley.

"So where exactly is the body?" he asked sergeant Roach. Roach didn't get a chance to answer.

"Booth!" He turned back to the alley and saw Temperance walk out of the brick wall at the end. What? No not out of the wall! He took a step forward and saw that the alley turned sharply at the end in an 'L' shape, to go behind the pet shop.

"Oh, er right." He nodded once more to the Sergeant and disappeared after his partner. He turned the corner. "So Bones, what have we got?" _Stupid question_. He could see for himself what was going on. Temperance stood aside so that Booth had a full view of the crime scene. Unfortunately it looked exactly as he expected – there, up against the grimy brick wall, was the imitation altar, and lit candles, and masks, and flowers. And bones. "What do you make of it?" he asked her. Temperance stepped forward and knelt back down next to the macabre display.

"Male. Between the ages of 10 and 13.Scratches covering the bones appear to correspond with the rats' teeth marks that we found on the bones of our Jane Doe. There is also a fracture on the right tibia that would have been made from a strong force striking the base of the foot, or more likely the foot striking it."

"So he kicked something solid?" Booth summarized.

"Yes." She looked up at him from her crouched position. He looked very somber. She knew he hated cases twice as much when a child was involved. So did she.

He looked down at her when she turned to him. Her face looked drawn. He knew it cost her extra effort to stay objective and unemotional when a kid was involved. He hated it too. She looked away.

"Ok then," Booth said to her. "I'm going to question the owner of this shop here." He indicated the wall of the building to his right. "Do you want to come?"

She stood up. "Yes, I'll come."

When they entered the pet shop they couldn't see anyone there. "Hello! Mr. Copeland?" Booth called out.

"Here!" came a voice from somewhere amongst the litter of cages, and mewing, barking and snuffling animals. Booth moved further into the shop, with Temperance following just behind. Booth then saw why he had missed the owner of the store when he entered. He was sitting in a pen surrounded by several boisterous puppies. The man stood and extricated himself from the excited animals, climbing out of the pen and extending his hand to Booth. "Hello there. I am Mr. Copeland. You were looking for me?"

"Yes, sir. I'm Special Agent Booth from the FBI and this is my partner Dr. Brennan." Mr. Copeland was an older man, mid fifties or so, with graying hair and a kindly smile. He shook hands with Booth, then took Temperance's proffered hand in his own. "And what is a fine lady such as yourself doing at such a horrible scene as this?" he asked gallantly.

"I'm here to inspect the remains." She replied un-blinkingly.

"Oh." He could not really think of a decent reply to that, so he turned back to Booth.

"We just wanted to ask you a few questions." Said Booth, stopping himself from laughing at his partner's blunt answer.

"Yes, of course. What would you like to know."

"Well first of all, what time did you find the body?"

"Around 11 this morning. I went to put a few bags of rubbish out the back. Just to get them out of the way, you know? Rubbish day's not 'til Thursday, and I don't have all that much room in here, as you can see." He swept an arm over the cluttered room and smiled. Booth smiled back.

"When was the last time you were out there? Besides this morning of course."

"Gosh, um, not for several days. Oh, yes actually I went out there four days ago to bring in some spare cages I had left out there."

"Alright. Have you seen anything suspicious around here lately? Probably in the last week or so, particularly last night."

Mr. Copeland paused to think then shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I can't think of anything. Most people keep to themselves around here. You know, everyone works hard. Not much time to do anything else on the kind of wages people round here get. I'm one of the lucky ones. Self-employed. Although it's still a bit tight sometimes." He shrugged.

"Do you employ anyone else here?"

"No, no. It's just me. It's easier that way, really. Just me and my animals, and the customers who buy them." He reached into a glass tank a petted a turtle that was inside. When he noticed Temperance watching him and the turtle he smiled and gestured to it. "This is Jada. She's one of my favourites. She's been here for a few weeks already." He seemed very proud of the turtle he called Jada.

"Ok then. I think that will be all the questions for now. If you think of anything helpful please give me a call." Booth shook his hand again.

"Of course Agent Booth. And if you're ever in need of a pet you know where to find me." Mr. Copeland replied cheerfully. Booth turned and ushered Temperance out of the shop.

"Goodbye now." He said after them. "Nice to meet you Doctor."

"Bye."

Once they were outside the shop Booth turned to his partner. "Are you done here?" She nodded. "Let's go then." They went back to the car. Booth opened the door for Temperance and then got in himself.

* * *

When he pulled out of the street, Booth sighed. "I hate it when cops are right. It boosts their egos to ridiculous levels. And the last thing we need is more cocky cops all over the place." 

Temperance let the ego comment slide, considering the less than cheerful circumstances. "What were the cops right about?"

He turned to face her for a moment. "They were right…in saying that we have a serial killer on our hands."

**Sooo...? btw I know it was kind of random but i had to put in the turtle named Jada. my muse made me do it. ) please R&R!**


	5. Progress?

**Again, I'm sorry this took so long. Never underestimate the power of school to make you ridiculously busy. This one's a bit short but I've written most of the next one already so that should be up soon too.**

**Disclaimer: No, I don't own Bones. (sighs)**

That afternoon the lab was reasonably quiet. This was not from a lack of people however. Everyone was working hard at their individual tasks, and in fact the only two people within talking distance of each other were a certain Dr. Brennan and her student, neither of whom were prone to loud silence-interrupting chatter. They were both standing on the platform, looking over the recently discovered remains.

"What do you make of this fracture to the right tibia, Zach?"

Zach examined the indicated bone. "I would say it's the result of a solid object connecting with the foot, putting enough strain on the bone to cause the fracture."

"Good. That was my thought too. The marks on these bones definitely coincide with the marks on our other set of remains. Both made by minor mammals, most probably rats. Did you compare the knick on the C6 vertebra of these remains to the similar knick on the other?" she asked Zach.

"Yes I did. Both cuts were made by the same instrument. Something along the lines of a thin bladed knife." Temperance nodded and they both went back to studying the bones on the table in front of them.

"Hey guys, I've got a face for you." Angela called to them as she mounted the steps to the platform. She handed the picture over. "It's not the same boy that's in the photo from the altar. Again."

"No, it isn't." Temperance looked down at the picture. The boy had a thin face, with dark skin and large eyes. It definitely wasn't the same boy. The one in the photo that was found on the altar had a smaller nose, and a more defined chin, although he was thin and dark skinned as well. Angela took the two pictures from her and looked at them sadly. Two young boys looked back at her: one dead, the other somehow involved in these twisted killings. She tried to ignore the awful feeling that the second boy was also dead. One dead child was more than enough for her to handle. Angela was pulled out of her musings by Hodgins joining them on the platform.

"I've got the results for the particles that you found in the acetabulum." He told them.

"The what?" Angela interjected.

Hodgins smirked at her and she stuck her tongue out in return."The hip socket. Anyway, it's soil. The particular carbon and nitrogen levels indicate that it is from the D.C. area, and according to the moisture content, specifically located close to the Potomac River."

"Thanks Hodgins, that's some progress at least. More than we're getting." Temperance said in reply.

"Yeah but 'close to the Potomac River' doesn't exactly give us a definitive area to look at." Zach pointed out, irritatingly correct as usual.

Hodgins shot him a glare. "Do you have anything better?"

"Er…no." Zach replied, suddenly finding perusing his shoes to be a good use of his time (at least while Hodgins remained within glaring distance).

Angela covered a smile behind her hand. "Well if you guys don't need me for anything else then I'll go and fax this through to Booth's office." She indicated the picture of the dead boy, still in her hand.

"Thanks Ange." Temperance smiled wearily. "Let's hope Booth can get us name for this one. We're starting to run out of leads. Again." Angela nodded before heading back to her office, praying fervently for Booth to pull through.

Booth entered the lab just under an hour later, waving a file above his head.

"Hey Bones!" he called to her, seeing her standing on the platform. She watched him approach.

"What?"

"Miguel Vasquez." He said triumphantly.

"_What_?"

"The name of our vic. Miguel Vasquez." He stopped in front of her and opened the file. "10 years old. Reported missing yesterday. Lives on Carlston, a couple of blocks from where we found him."

"Oh. Why didn't you just say so in the first place?"

He didn't bother answering. "Come on, let's go. We've got to go talk to the parents."

"Alright. I'll be two seconds." She strode rapidly off to her office, stripping off her lab coat in the process. She re-emerged, adjusting her jacket. Booth fell in step with her as she made her way towards the doors, automatically placing his hand on the small of her back to guide her.

**Reviews are my life-force! I'd like to stay alive. at least until I finish my fic lol. so please review!**


	6. The Dichotomy of Death

**alrighty everybody here's the next chapter. And I made it nice and long for all you wonderful patient readers and reviewers out there! Thanks for bearing with me. I hope you like it. btw I changed the name of the dead boy from last chapter, I changed my mind about what he and his family would be like, so his name didn't work anymore.**

**Disclaimer: I'll own Bones when Jasper the pig grows wings and flies. (Hey, it _could_ happen right?)**

**Happy reading!**

Chapter 6: The Dichotomy of Death

They pulled up outside a slightly dilapidated, one-story house in Carlston Street. However the owners weren't alone in the state of their home; it was only one in a series of small, single story houses, all looking a little worse for wear. They got out of the car and made their way through the un-hinged, knee-high gate, up the narrow front path, and onto the porch. Booth knocked on the door and waited. Temperance, with a file in hand, stood just behind him. _They don't think much about appearances._ She thought to herself as she looked back at the untamed front lawn and the broken gate. She turned back when she heard steps approaching from inside the house. A robust Hispanic woman was peering out through the screen door at them. Her eyes were flicking between the two of them as though she was sizing them up.

"What do you want?" the woman asked gruffly. Her eyes settled on Booth when he answered her.

"I'm Special Agent Booth from the FBI and this is my partner, Dr. Brennan. We're looking for Mr. and Mrs. Vasquez. Is that you?"

There was a pause. "You didn't say what you wanted them for." The woman said evasively. _Lucky for her Booth is currently in a very sympathetic mood,_ Temperance thought, although she wouldn't suggest the woman push it. Booth smiled politely.

"We're here to discuss their son, Miguel, who they reported missing 3 days ago." All pretenses were dropped at the mention of the young boy. "Did you find him?" the woman gasped, flinging open the screen door. "Did you find my baby?"

"So I take it you are Mrs. Vasquez?" he asked with a thinning façade of composure. She didn't get a chance to answer him.

"Excuse me. May I help you?" said an indignant voice. Temperance turned on the spot to see a tall Hispanic man standing on the top step of the porch, giving the two intruders a very suspicious look. He was wearing a workman's tan jumpsuit – a mechanic, Temperance guessed by the grease stains on his clothing and hands, and the red, metal tool box in his hand. He had close-cut black hair and a 5 o'clock shadow on his cheeks. Before either she or Booth could say a word the man stepped around them and looked to the distressed woman standing in the door.

"What's all this, Mariana?" he asked sternly, flicking his eyes calculatingly over Brennan and Booth.

"Oh, oh Ramón, they're from the FBI. It's about our Miguel!" the man turned and looked straight at Booth, wide-eyed.

"Sir," Booth held out his hand to shake. "I'm Agent Booth, this is Dr. Brennan. We're here about Miguel Vasquez." The man, Ramón, shook his hand.

"Oh I see. I'm Ramón Vasquez, the father of Miguel. This is my wife Mariana." He looked at her accusingly. "Did you not invite the Agent and his lady in?"

"Oh, no she's not…" "I'm not his _lady_." Temperance and Booth exclaimed at the same time, although while Booth was just embarrassed at the suggestion, Temperance was both embarrassed and rather insulted by the derogatory term _'his lady'_ (no matter how much she wouldn't mind it being true). She attempted to save the situation. "I'm a forensic Anthropologist from the Jeffersonian Institute. And I'm Agent Booth's partner. _Work_ partner."

"Oh, well, would you like to come in?"

Booth smiled politely. "If you don't mind."

"Not at all." He turned to his wife, still standing shell-shocked in the doorway. "Mari!" he urged and she turned quickly and went back into the house. Booth and Brennan followed them through a narrow hallway into a cramped living room with two undersized couches and a large armchair surrounding a low, cluttered table. Mr. Vasquez indicated they should sit down on one of the small couches. In fact, Booth noted, it was so small that when he sat down next to Brennan he found that they couldn't avoid being squashed together. With a alot of will power he shoved the fact aside and concentrated on the job at hand.

"So what have you found out about Miguel? Is he… you know?" Mr. Vasquez, looking very tense, had settled himself into the armchair. His wife was perched on the other couch opposite them. Booth looked down at his clasped hands, then back up again. "Mr. and Mrs. Vasquez... I'm sorry I have to tell you…" He was cut off by Mrs. Vasquez's loud wail.

"Ay mi Miguelito!...mi querido!" Her husband got up to come and sit beside her, wrapping his arms round her shoulders. She clutched at him like a drowning person would clutch at a life raft. Temperance watched the whole scene, feeling both upset for the couple and extremely uncomfortable about the situation. Mr. Vasquez looked to Booth, his face was strained with repressed emotion. He opened his mouth and choked out one word. "_How?_"

Booth inhaled deeply. "Truthfully, sir… your son was murdered. I'm sorry." The statement was met by a fresh bout of wailing and tears from Mrs. Vasquez. Yet again Mr. Vasquez could only utter one word, although this time he was choked with anger rather than shock and distress.

"_Who?_"

Again Booth looked down at his hands before looking back at him. "We don't know. But we have good reason to believe that there is a connection to another murder." He paused and looked to his partner. Temperance opened the file she was holding and pulled out Angela's rendition of the unknown elderly woman found in Tauride Park. She stood and handed it across the table to Mr. Vasquez. "Do you recognise this woman?" he scrutinised the picture carefully but still shook his head. "No, I haven't seen her before."

"What about your wife?" Booth asked gently.

The woman in question was still sobbing into her husband's shoulder, although she was quieter than earlier. She pulled away from him to look at the picture, tears still making tracks down her face, her mixed feelings of bewilderment and anguish evident in her features. Apparently unable to speak, she shook her head violently from side to side before re-burying it in her hands, new sobs wracking her body. Mr. Vasquez returned the photo. "Is that all?" he asked, almost pleadingly.

"Just a few more questions, if you don't mind, sir. Then we'll go." Booth promised, receiving a nod in reply. "Firstly, your son was discovered in an alley off Stuart Street, not far from here. Does that have any significance to you?"

"None that I can think of, Agent Booth. He might have been around there before, I really don't know. He goes off… he _used _to go off with some friends of his sometimes, usually to play soccer, anywhere they could find. Nothing bad ever happened, they were sensible boys, as sensible as boys can be I suppose, so we let them be, you know? They knew not to go far, pretty much always home when his mother told him to be… well, except this time." His last miserable comment elicited a moan from the distraught woman next to him. He placed a heavy hand on her back in a hollow attempt at comfort.

"If you really want to know," he said despondently. "Ask his friend Anton, he lives a few doors down. Number 23. If anyone would know it would be him."

"Thank you." Booth jotted down the boys name and house number. "Was he going out with his friends when you last saw him. At," he glanced at the notes he'd taken from the police report, "2.00 that afternoon.?"

He shook his head hopelessly. "I don't know. I didn't see any of them, but sometimes he'd meet them on the way to wherever."

Booth nodded and stood. "Well thank you, Mr. Vasquez, for your time."

Mr. Vasquez nodded and stood also, walking Booth and Brennan to the door. When they reached it Booth turned to him. "Sir, we are truly sorry for your loss." The man smiled politely, although it appeared as more of a grimace. His face was pinched with self-restraint and Booth saw he'd chosen the right time to leave.

"Give your wife our condolences." She was still on the couch and Booth didn't really think his _condolences_ would help her at all, not when she'd just learned that her little boy was dead; worse, he was murdered. The two men exchanged handshakes and Temperance received a nod. Then they stepped onto the porch and the door closed behind them, encasing the couple in their house now suddenly filled with misery. The pair descended the peeling steps, made their way through the chaos of the front lawn and exited through the rusted gate.

* * *

Standing a distance away from the property they had just left, Temperance turned to Booth. "Are we going to go talk to his friend?" 

"We might as well." He answered. "Seeing as we're already here." Booth looked to the house on the left, number 7, then to the one on the right, number 11. "This way." He motioned to his right and led her down the uneven pathway, past six other run-down homes, to number 23. This house had a reasonably solid, waist-high wooden gate, although the garden was similar to the previous one they had visited. Unfortunately the reason for the well-kept gate made it's presence known as soon as Booth unlatched the gate and they stepped onto the property. A dark brown boxer dog leapt up and raced towards them from the far side of the lawn, barking deafeningly. Brennan quickly backed up several steps before the dog suddenly jerked backwards itself, then stayed where it was, continuing to bark at them. It was then she noticed the rope attached to its collar, trailing back to a peg in the ground where the dog had been lying before they entered. Booth glanced at Temperance, now standing several steps behind him, almost out the gate again.

"Don't like dogs Bones?" he asked, grinning mischievously.

"Not when they charge at me like that." She scowled at him. "Or bark like they want to tear me apart." She added quieter. Booth wanted to kick himself. _How could he say something so stupid!_ Only a few months ago she nearly _had_ been torn apart by vicious barking dogs!

"God Bones, I'm sorry. That was a really dumb thing to say."

She smiled at him reassuringly. "Don't worry about it. Come on, let's get this over with." She walked forward then stopped when Booth continued to watch her cautiously. "Booth, the dog's tied up. I'm fine! Unless _you're _afraid of it of course." If he wasn't going to listen to her there was always one fool proof way to make him forget about it. He took the bait, as she knew he would.

"What! I'm not afraid of a puny dog, Bones." He defended. She gave him an innocent look and turned towards the house.

"No of course not Booth." She started walking forwards and Booth quickly caught up with her.

"I'm not." He confirmed. She didn't reply. They walked to the front of the house. This one didn't have a porch, just two concrete steps up to the door. Before either of them got to the steps a teenage girl burst out of the front door, dark hair flying and cheeks red. She jumped the steps, ignoring the two people she bypassed as she moved quickly over to the dog.

"Max! Goddammit! Will you can it!" the dog quickly surrendered in the face of the ill-tempered girl and backed off to the corner of the garden it came from. The girl turned back towards them and looked them over. "Can I help you?" she asked, although from her tone it sounded like the last thing she would like to do was help.

"Does a boy named Anton live here?" Brennan asked.

"Yes, why? Who are you?"

"We're from the FBI. We're here about Miguel Vasquez." Booth answered.

The girl appeared to think for a second. "Miguel…oh right. Toni's little friend. The one who went missing hey? Hang on, he's just inside somewhere. Uh, I s'pose I should get mum too…" Temperance wasn't sure if she was talking to herself or to them. _Ugh, teenagers_. The girl leaped up the stairs then turned at the door. "Um, I guess you guys can come in, if you want, I mean, you can stay..."

"Thank you. We will come in." Booth said. Mainly to get her to stop talking.

"Um alright." She turned into the house and they followed her. She pointed them into an open plan living, dining and kitchen area littered with toys and clothes and other odd bits before disappearing off down the hall, deeper into the house. They could here her calling for both Anton or 'Toni' and her mother. Booth and Brennan stood next to each other beside a cheap, pale yellow painted bookcase, containing everything imaginable except an actual book. The first person to come back into the room was a young boy, assumedly Anton, who just stood in the door and stared. He had both dark skin and hair and looked a lot like his sister. An older woman entered just behind him, placing her hands on his shoulders, with the teenage girl right on her heels. "May I help you?" the woman asked, imitating her daughter.

"Yes ma'm. I think you can. I'm Agent Booth from the FBI and this is my partner Dr. Brennan. We're here about Miguel Vasquez. We've just been talking to his parents and they told us that your son Anton was good friends with Miguel. So we came here to ask him a few questions." Booth explained.

The woman pursed her lips. "I'm figuring by your involvement that Miguel is dead."

Booth glanced at the boy in front of him, rather surprised that the woman would say it so bluntly in front of her son. "Well, uh, yes ma'm I'm afraid he is. So you understand why we need to ask Anton a few questions."

Her eyes narrowed. "You don't think he had anything to do with it, do you? Because he didn't."

"No ma'm we don't. Not at all. We're just trying to figure out who was the last person to see him before he disappeared."

She nodded sharply and looked down to Anton, standing in front of her. "Well? When was the last time you saw Miguel?" she demanded of him. The boy screwed up his face in thought.

"I ain't seen him since school, mamá." He said, tilting his head back to look at his mother. She looked to Booth.

"School finished a week ago. He hasn't seen him since then."

Booth nodded, then addressed the boy himself. "Anton, did you and Miguel ever play on Stuart Street?" the boy screwed up his face again then shrugged his shoulders. "It's just a few blocks away from here." Booth prompted.

"Dunno. Probly." He said. "Don't really look at what the streets are called."

Booth sighed. "Alright. Well do you know if Miguel ever played on his own, away from home?"

"Yeah I think he does sometimes, like just kicking a ball or whatever if he's bored."

"Ok, thanks." Booth wondered why Anton wasn't at all upset about the news of his friend's death. Maybe he hadn't been listening when his mother said it. He looked up to the woman, still standing over her son. "Thank you ma'm. We might be in touch again, but probably not." He glanced at Anton. "Uh, you might want to talk to him about what's happened, I don't think he understands entirely." The woman said nothing, but Anton was scrutinizing him openly in the way only children, and perhaps Temperance Brennan, would ever do.

"I do unnerstand Mr." he said. "You're the one who got it wrong. Miguel isn't dead. He's gone to play soccer. He told me he was gonna be a big soccer star. That was his plan you see, so he can't be dead yet cos he ain't a big star yet. I have to see him on TV first, that's what he said, I'll know he's there when I seen him on TV. And I haven't seen him on TV so he's not dead, jus' on his way to soccer. Do you _see_?"

Booth half nodded. Temperance frowned but, thankfully, stayed silent. He looked back to the mother. "Uh, we'll go now. Thanks for your time." She moved out of the doorway, but left them to find the front door by themselves. They left the house. The dog started barking again when they walked over the lawn to the gate. And by the time they were out on the main street again and walking to the car the teenage girl had come back out of the house, yelling loudly for the dog to 'can it'.

* * *

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	7. Thai Food and Handcuffs

**OMG it's the apocalypse! - I updated in one day!!!(sorry if i burst your bubble ktlyn.) it's just a filler chapter but it's full of BB fluff just like you asked! btw I think I deserve lots and lots of reviews for updating so soon. hint hint. I hope you all like it!**

**Disclaimer: Nope, Jasper the pig hasn't grown wings and flown yet.**

**Chapter 7:Thai Food and Handcuffs**

_The tiny girl sat cross-legged on the grass, in her pink and white sundress, staring intently at the bumble bee zig-zagging amongst the white daisies and clipped blades of grass. Abandoning its fruitless search, the curious bee made its bumbling way over to the equally curious girl. It hummed around her, bobbing up and down, almost alighting on her several times, before moving away with the listlessness the warm, late-summer sun seemed to demand._

_The mousy-haired girl watched it disappear, then looked back to the grass in front of her, the bee already forgotten. Her focus was on a point just out of reach of her child's arms. She leaned forward onto her knees, her hands splayed in the grass. Reaching out, she plucked something from the greenery then dropped back into her previous position. She held her prize carefully, and close to her face: a tiny pink-tinged daisy. The girl tilted her head from side to side in curiosity. A voice called from far off. The small girl raised her head and twisted her body around to look behind her. The voice called again and she stood up quickly and ran off towards it, her pink and white dress flapping behind her._

_The pink-tinged daisy was left behind among the blades of grass._

_Minutes after the girl had gone, the garden remained still, but it wasn't empty._

_If anyone had looked they would have seen a person step forward onto the grass area. They would have seen a man bend down and pick something up, holding it between thumb and fore-finger, then raise it to his face. And before he turned and walked away, they would have seen him lift his head and gaze in the direction the young girl had disappeared in._

_But no one was looking. And so no one else had seen the curious little girl with the pink and white dress, watching the wandering bumble bee. And no one saw the man walking away, with a pink-tinged daisy between his fingers._

* * *

Temperance was sitting at her desk when Angela walked through the door of her office. 

"Hey Sweetie. Almost finished?" She asked hopefully.

Brennan looked up at her friend, taking a while to register that she had asked her a question. "What? Oh, no I've still got heaps to do Ange. I'll be here for a while yet."

Angela gave her a pained look. " Oh come on Bren. It's 8.00. Everyone else has gone home. Most left hours ago. I'm about to leave too, and I'm really _late _tonight."

"No Angela." Brennan sighed. "I have to get this work done. It doesn't finish itself you know."

"Oh, I know honey, but you can't keep working like this every night, it's not good for you. You do need to sleep sometime."

"Ange I'm not going to go to bed at 8.00 anyway."

"But you don't have to work every second that your not asleep." Angela rationalised.

Brennan sighed. "Ange I don't. Stop exaggerating."

Angela placed her hands on her hips. "I'm sorry Bren, but you are _not _staying at work. You are going to go home and relax, or you can come and get some dinner with me. I bet you haven't eaten yet."

"Ange…" She was about to object but Angela cut her off.

"Nope, you're not talking your way out of this one. You are leaving and if you don't…" her eyes lit up suddenly. "If you don't, I'll call Booth!"

"What?"

Angela pulled out her phone. "I'm dialing…"

Angela no!" Angela was bad enough, but she didn't want to see Booth's reaction if Angela told him she thought she was working too hard again. Temperance tried to snatch Angela's phone away, but Angela was one step ahead of her. She turned and held it away from Brennan.

"Are you going to leave?" Angela asked, and for once she was desperately hoping Temperance would refuse.

"Ange, I can't…"

"Okay, your choice!" Angela hit the talk button and waited as the phone rang.

"Angela you can't call him! He's probably busy. He won't be happy if you interrupt something just for…"

"Hey Booth, it's Angela." She said over the top of her friend.

* * *

Booth was sitting in a bar with a few other FBI agents (who weren't really his friends, but were close enough to drink with) when his phone rang. He excused himself and moved away where there were less people and a bit less noise. 

"Booth." He answered.

""Hey Booth, it's Angela."

"Angela? What's up?" _why on earth is she calling me._ "Is Bones alright?"

On the other end of the line, Angela grinned, while Temperance just stood in front of her looking utterly dismayed; it was too late to stop her traitorous friend now.

"Well, yes and no." Oh she was going to have fun with this!

"Angela what are you talking about?"

"Well you see, Bren is refusing to leave work at this late hour. _And_ she hasn't eaten any dinner. I've asked her to leave nicely, and then I had to threaten her. But when that didn't work I decided I would have to follow through on my threat. So I called you."

"Your threat was that you'd call me?" he asked, slightly incredulous. Then he laughed. "Nice one Angela." He had to admit he was probably the one person Bones wouldn't want Angela to call if she needed back up.

"So can you help me out?" Angela asked mischievously.

"No problem Ange." Booth made his way back to the bar to grab his coat. "I'll be there in ten."

"Wonderful! We'll see you soon then!" Angela replied, then she hung up.

Booth put his phone back in his pocket and raised his hand to the other Agents. "I'm off guys."

One of them smirked at him. "What, the Missus need you at home?" Booth gave a false smile, chucked some cash on the counter to pay for his beer and left. _Yeah ok, so they really didn't know him at all._

By the time Angela hung up the phone Brennan was standing in front of her with wide eyes and her mouth hanging open.

"I can't _believe _you just told on me. And to Booth! You are so dead."

Angela put on a face of mock seriousness. "Oh but Booth will be here soon, you see. So you can't kill me. Because then he'd have to arrest you. I'm pretty sure killing your friend because she told on you is still a crime."

Temperance just groaned and looked up at the ceiling, covering her face with her hands. _What was it about her and attracting the most insufferable friends in the country. If it were up to Angela and Booth she would never have a moment's peace again._ She looked back at Angela, who was unsuccessfully trying to hide her grin.

"You know that was incredibly rude of you. What if he was busy?" She scolded.

Angela shrugged innocently. "I didn't hear him complaining."

Temperance glared at her then turned and went back to her desk. If they were going to try and drag her away, she wasn't going to make it easy. Angela just rolled her eyes and sat down silently on her couch to wait for Booth.

He arrived ten minutes later, just like he'd said he would. Brennan heard his footsteps long before he got to her door, but when he reached it she ignored him, pretending to be too absorbed in her work to notice him. Angela smiled sweetly at him when he entered the room. "Hi Booth."

"Hey Ange." He replied. Temperance was still ignoring them. Angela gave Booth a 'see what I mean' look, and Booth turned to face his partner.

"Bones, back away from the computer or I'll have to use force." He said threateningly, not that she was intimidated. She sighed heavily and lifted her face, giving Booth a full blown glare. He countered it with his best charm smile.

"Booth, _as if_ you could force me to do anything." She said scornfully.

He tried to act hurt, but unfortunately she was pretty much right. "Oh come on Bones, give me a little credit." She continued to glare. "Look, I brought Thai food!" he said optimistically. "I bet you're hungry. You will have sat here all night practically inhaling caffeine and not eating a thing, am I right?"

She rolled her eyes at his typical male belief that the remedy to everything was food. But her determination to bore a hole through him with her eyes failed miserably when his childish grin forced a smile onto her own face.

"Alright fine." She surrendered. "I won't work anymore tonight." She switched off her computer and walked around her desk, while Booth sat down on the couch next to a grinning Angela. "But you know, you two really should stop threatening me, or one day I might actually kick your asses."

Booth put on a worried face. "Yeah, you're probably right. From now on Angela, we'll just have to resort to blackmail and three on one ambushes."

"Three on one?" Angela asked.

"Yeah well I was gonna say four on one, but I don't think Zach would be much help in the ambush department."

"Hah, yeah, good point." Angela laughed. Temperance stood in front of them with her hands on her hips, her glare reinstated.

"Are you two quite finished?"

Booth laughed. "Yeah alright. I think we're done now. Sit down and stop glaring."

Brennan turned to grab a chair but Angela stopped her. "Actually Bren you can sit here, I just remembered, I've scheduled myself to clean up my apartment tonight."

"But you never clean your apartment." Brennan said, confused.

"Exactly. It's about time I started, isn't it?" Angela explained, standing up from the couch. Brennan shrugged, but Booth eyed her as she walked towards the door. _Yeah, real subtle Angela, _he thought. She turned at the door. "Night guys. Have fun. And Booth, don't let her near her desk." She warned.

Booth mock saluted her. "I'll handcuff her to the table if she tries."

"I don't doubt it." Angela grinned. She walked out the door just as Brennan gave Booth a whack on the arm, and she heard an indignant "hey!" as she made her way quickly across the floor towards the doors and her home, which she would most definitely _not_ be cleaning.

Booth pulled the two food cartons out of the bag and held them up in front of him. "So do you want Beef or Chicken?" he asked Brennan, who was now sitting next to him on the couch.

"Want to go halves?" she suggested.

"Good idea. Which one do you want to start with then?"

"I don't mind." She chose a box at random. "This one." Suddenly realising how hungry she was (_Damn him for being right!_) she took Booths words about inhaling things to heart and quickly demolished her share of the beef and noodles. (yes, it turned out she had picked the beef. Not that she really noticed. Or cared.)

They swapped cartons and slowed down their eating, allowing room for conversation between bites. "So what are you working on that's so important anyway?" Booth asked her.

"Booth, all my work is important." She scolded. "But tonight I was trying to finish a report on the remains of a civil war soldier. They were quite easy to evaluate actually. The fact that they were very well preserved left little room for the inferior use of guesswork, which is used surprisingly often." She looked at him pointedly. "Not unlike you using your 'gut' to solve cases." She jabbed an accusing finger in his direction. Booth bridled at this and raised his hands defensively in front of himself.

"Hey now, I'll have you know that my gut has solved quite a few cases over the years, not to mention saved your butt," he pointed his own accusatory finger at her, "once or twice."

"Booth, you saved my life those times because you are an excellent agent and have good detective skills. And those cases were most certainly not solved by your 'gut', but by solid science and expert scientists." She stated matter-of-factly.

Booth snorted and muttered "Ego, what?" under his breath. Although he noted her compliments and was secretly thrilled that she thought so highly of him.

Her brow creased in confusion. "Booth that doesn't make sense." He sighed but smiled affectionately at her.

"Never mind, Bones."

She narrowed her eyes at him for a moment, then gave up and leaned back into the cushions. She attempted to stifle a yawn, but Booth noticed and stood up immediately.

"Come on Bones, time to go home, all that hard work's making you exhausted." He stretched his hand out to help her up. She thought for a moment about being stubborn and not taking it, but she was really too tired to resist. He pulled her up, perhaps holding on to her hand a bit longer than necessary, then let go and bent to gather up the remnants of their meal. He dumped it all in the bin while Brennan moved over to her desk to gather her things and turn off the lamp. When she was done she turned to Booth and tilted her head to one side.

"Aren't you going to handcuff me to the table?" she asked, her expression entirely serious. For a second Booth was confused and thought she'd gone completely nuts. Then a wide grin spread across her face and she laughed.

"Oh my god, was that supposed to be a joke?" he laughed disbelievingly. "Geez Bones for a second I thought you were serious!"

She just stood there beaming at him. "I know! You should have seen your face. Remember when you said to Angela that you would handcuff me to the table if I went near my desk?"

He laughed again and smiled proudly at her. _She'd actually made a joke!_ He looked at her smiling._ Damn she was gorgeous when she smiled._ He made a vow to try and make her smile more often. He made himself stop staring. "Alright, come on. Let's go." He ushered her out of her office and led her out of the building to the car park. She yawned several times on the way out and Booth didn't say anything, but when they reached the car park he stopped her. "Bones let me give you a ride home. You shouldn't drive like that."

"Like what? I'm fine." She argued.

"You're not fine. You can't stop yawning. If you drive when you're this tired you're likely to fall asleep at the wheel and cause a ten car pile up. I'm not letting you drive, ok?"

She opened her mouth to argue again but before she uttered a sound Booth grabbed her by the hand and dragged her off in the other direction, towards his car. About halfway there she found her voice again. "Booth" she groaned. "I'm fine, honestly. And how am I supposed to get to work in the morning. I'll have to take a cab, or call Angela, only Angela doesn't come into work until later, so then I'll be even more behind on my work and…" Booth cut her off.

"Bones stop ranting. I'll come and pick you up tomorrow, ok?"

"But…"

"No buts. You don't get a choice." They had now reached his car. He let go of her hand, unlocked the car and opened the passenger door, then turned and looked at her expectantly.

"Oh alright." She mumbled, and scrambled into the car. Shutting the door after her, he moved around the car and got in. "See, that wasn't too difficult now, was it?" she didn't answer but scowled out the window. As Booth pulled out of the car park she leaned her head back against the head rest and closed her eyes, secretly glad that she no longer had to drive home.

Booth pulled up to her apartment building soon after. He looked over at her, she'd had her eyes closed the whole time, but he wasn't sure if she was sleeping or not. He was about to call to her when she opened her eyes on her own.

"We're here?" she asked, looking out the window.

"Yeah, have a good sleep?"

She glanced over at him and looked away again. "I wish." _Well there was some baggage if ever he'd heard it._

"What's up?" he asked kindly.

"Oh, don't worry about it. I just haven't been sleeping well lately. It doesn't matter." She opened the car door and he followed her onto the pavement.

"Why can't you sleep, Bones?" they headed towards her building and walked inside.

"I don't know, I guess I just have too much on my mind. This case isn't helping much either, we're not really getting anywhere."

Booth nodded sympathetically as they went up the stairs. "I'm sure we will soon. We always do, right?" he gave her a smile and she returned it.

"You didn't have to walk me to my door you know."

"I don't mind, Bones." They reached her apartment and she turned to him.

"Thanks for the ride Booth." She said sincerely.

He smiled at her again. "No problem. So I'll pick you up at what, 7 tomorrow?"

"That would be great. Thanks." She turned and unlocked her door, stepping inside her apartment. "Goodnight Booth."

"Night Bones. Don't forget to lock your door." She rolled her eyes.

"_Alright_ Booth. Goodnight." She gave him one last smile and shut the door. Booth waited to hear the lock click, then went back down the stairs and drove home_. He'd need his rest if he was going to get up that early tomorrow!_

Brennan went straight to bed, and although she didn't have a perfect night's sleep, it was definitely better than the previous few.

* * *

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	8. Breaking and Entering

**Woohoo! Finally updated! Sorry, sorry, sorry for taking so long - I promise it was not intentional. My inspiration left me for a while (I think it went sailing) but it's back now! So here's the chapter.**

**Enjoy!**

**Chapter 8: Breaking and Entering**

Booth was up and moving about his apartment at the ridiculous hour of 6:30 that morning. Quickly downing his hot cup of coffee he grabbed his stuff and made his way out to his car. Driving over to her apartment, Booth almost laughed. Not so long ago nothing short of a dire emergency would have made him get up so early. Now he was up and driving _voluntarily_, and all because of a certain Forensic Anthropologist. Heck, she hadn't even _asked_ him to do it! _Man he was falling bad_.

He groaned inwardly. He had to stop thinking like that. It was stupid and pointless, he was _never_ going to tell her. He could already picture her reaction if he did - panic, run, then avoid him for the rest of his life. But before he could block it off another, more hopeful thought crossed his mind. _What if she didn't panic? What if she gave him one of her wonderful smiles, and didn't run away and…_ but she wouldn't, she couldn't. And even on the small chance that she did feel the same, he wouldn't risk it. He'd learnt that when he had finally quit gambling: don't risk something you can't afford to lose. He couldn't risk losing his Bones. He could never tell her. _Could he?_

He shook his head to get rid of the self-destructive thoughts as he pulled up outside her apartment. He got out of the car and quickly made his way up to her place. When he reached the door he knocked, knowing she would answer it immediately, ready to go. But she didn't answer, so he knocked again. After a long minute of silence from the other side of the door Booth began to worry. "Bones!" He knocked harder in case she hadn't heard the first two times. "Bones are you in there?"

When there was still no answer he pulled out his set of keys. She had given it to him for emergencies after she had finally got sick of her door being broken down, either by him or the police, every time she was kidnapped or went missing. '_Typical Bones'_ he'd thought when she had given it to him, '_she gets kidnapped by a raving lunatic and all she worries about is her door being broken down.'_ Not that he was complaining now. Slipping the key into the lock, he turned it and cautiously opened the door. Booth stepped through the door with his gun now held ready down by his side and scanned her living room and kitchen. Everything seemed to be in place. But none of the lights were on and the kitchen was completely devoid of any morning dishes, not even an empty coffee cup. He moved towards the bathroom and nudged the half open door wide with his foot – also empty and supposedly in order. Lastly he made his way to the back of the apartment where her bedroom was. He reached out to the handle of the closed door. "Bones?" he whispered one last time. When no answer came he turned the handle and pushed the door open. Standing in the doorway, gun in hand, Booth let out a sigh. Lying in the bed, her face turned towards his side of the room, was Bones fast asleep and completely oblivious to the rather high-strung man with a gun in his hand standing in her doorway. He replaced his gun at his hip and looked at his Bones sleeping peacefully, with none of the usual worry or stress or caution evident in her features.

Seeing her so fast asleep he couldn't wake her up. She'd been so exhausted lately, she deserved a decent rest for once. Besides, she didn't officially have to be at work for another two hours, it was just _her_ that wanted to be in this early. Booth took one last look at her calm face and backed out of the room, closing the door behind him. He knew she would probably be furious with him for letting her sleep in but he didn't mind. She needed some sleep. He walked into the living room, certain he could find something to amuse himself for an hour or so. He stood behind the couch and glared at the spot where the wonder that is a television _should_ have been sitting. One day he swore he was just going to go out and _buy_ her a TV. Booth removed his jacket and sat down on the couch. Spotting a magazine on the coffee table in front of him he picked it up, hoping for something to read. When he saw the cover properly he dropped it back on the table like a hot stone. 'Ugh, he'd almost read an anthropology magazine!' He slumped back into the couch and looked around him. There really was nothing to do in her apartment. No TV, no decent magazines, and he couldn't put on any music because it would wake her up. Giving the non-existent TV one last glare, Booth pulled out his phone and proceeded to play many continuous games of Snake.

* * *

Temperance woke up gradually, curling into her warm, comfortable bed. She eventually opened her eyes and went to get out of bed. When she was half way out of her bed she glanced at the clock on her bedside table. 8:18… wait, 8:18! "Oh my…!" She tried to scramble the rest of the way out of bed at lightning speed, caught her foot in the sheet and fell hard on the floor with a thud. "Dammit." She muttered to herself, disentangling her foot and getting up off the floor. She froze as she heard a voice call out suddenly from somewhere in _her_ apartment. 

"Bones?"

"Booth?" She asked, extremely confused. The voice was now just outside her door. "Bones, are you ok? What was that noise?" Yes it was Booth, _but what was he doing in her apartment?_

"Uh, I'm fine. I just… just tripped." She took the four steps to the bedroom door and yanked it open. "Booth what on earth are you _doing_ here?" Booth raised his eyes from the floor when Temperance swung her door open apparently not aware that she was still wearing pyjama shorts and a singlet top). He opened his mouth to say something and his eyes opened wide along with it. He had a very odd expression on his face, Temperance noticed. '_And _w_hy wasn't he talking?'._

"Um, uh I…" His odd expression disappeared suddenly and he regained coherent speech. "I was waiting for you. I'm taking you to work today, remember? Because your car is still at the Jeffersonian. Only when I got here you didn't answer so I thought something was wrong and I let myself in. Then I saw you were still asleep and I knew you could use the extra sleep so I left you…and besides, you don't _have_ to be at work until 9." Booth visibly cringed, waiting for her to explode at him. For a long moment she stood silent and expressionless. Then she suddenly looked confused. _Not_ angry. Confused.

"You mean you've waited here the whole time by yourself until I woke up?" She asked.

"Uh, yeah." Now Booth was confused. Where was all the yelling and the lecture on workload and responsibility?

"But...why? Why didn't you just wake me up?" she still didn't sound angry, just puzzled.

"Because I saw what you were like last night. And you told me yourself you hadn't been sleeping well and you always work so damn hard, I figured you deserved a little extra sleep for once. I didn't mind waiting."

Again there was a pause and Booth could see her mind quickly processing everything behind her sky-blue eyes. Then, unexpectedly, she gave him a smile.

"Thank you Booth." She said very sincerely.

He returned her smile and said with matching sincerity "No problem Bones. Any time."

Each stood watching the other smile back until finally Temperance broke the moment, looking down at the floor between them. The action also showed her that she was still in her pyjamas. She flushed and half-turned back into her dim bedroom.

"Uh, I'll just get changed then." She successfully avoided eye contact.

"Oh right. I'll wait in the…" he waved his hand vaguely behind him. If she had looked she would have seen his face had also taken on a slightly pink tinge. She nodded and closed the door.

* * *

Ten minutes later they were in Booth's car and driving to the lab, both holding a much needed cup of coffee courtesy of Booth and some polystyrene cups Temperance kept in a cupboard for just such an occasion. She was starting to feel awfully indebted to Booth. He was being so helpful and generous and just genuinely _nice_. She didn't know what to think of it, and in fact, if she had let the thought enter her mind, she would have admitted that it was a little scary. Every few minutes she would have a moment of panic thinking that she hadn't told him how grateful she was for what he had done for her lately, but then she reminded herself that she had already thanked him at least five times since last night. So at the risk of sounding repetitive she opted for just keeping her mouth shut, which Angela had informed her was a very good idea whenever she was on the verge of saying something stupid…or smart to a guy. She had never quite understood the latter part of that remark. 

Booth pulled up in front of the entrance to the Jeffersonian. "I'll just drop you here. I've got to get to my office, try and put a dent in my pile of paperwork and sort out my notes before I update Cullen on the case later." She nodded and climbed out of the car. When she turned automatically to say thanks for the ride he grinned at her. "Also I don't really fancy being there when Angela sees you come in."

She gave him a bewildered look. "Angela? Why?"

He laughed. "Oh come on, Bones. You're walking into work at" he glanced at his watch then raised his eyebrow "five to _nine_ in the morning. That's what, _two_ hours later than usual? That alone will set her off formulating every possible scenario she can think of for you being late – none of which you'll appreciate, I'm sure – but can you imagine what your darling best friend will think when she finds out that I drove you home last night and dropped you off this morning? There's no way I'm walking right into that one!"

Temperance laughed with him, knowing exactly what ridiculous conclusion her 'darling' best friend would come to. "You're right, _I_ don't even want to be there! If you came in with me now she'd probably have us sleeping together last night within seconds of us walking through the door." She said, grinning back. "At least if you don't come in, and I don't tell her you gave me a ride, she might just have me having sex with some random guy instead of you." Booth just barely managed to keep his carefree, joking face on at those words. Inside he was cringing at how she spoke so carelessly about the idea of them sleeping together and also how she had just mentioned her _having sex_ with some other guy. He had just been using innuendo. _Did _she_ have to be so damn blunt?!_

"Well good luck with that." He replied casually. "If your squints get any more information on the case give me a call. I'm going to need all the extra info I can get before I see Cullen."

"Sure." She scooped up her bag from the floor in front of the passenger seat, then paused for a second. "So I'll uh see you later?"

"Yup I'll see you." She flashed him another smile before closing the door and walking swiftly away.

Temperance replayed the conversation in her head as she walked and found herself silently mortified at what she'd said. She had been talking to Booth about having sex with random guys…and with _him_! She thanked the God she didn't believe in that Booth had laughed instead of being embarrassed.

* * *

**I know not much is happening at the moment, but it should pick up speed very soon. lots more action coming up! And you know what makes that action come faster? lots of reviews!**


	9. Answered Prayers

**Thanks so much to the people that reviewed my last chapter. I'll excuse everyone else because of the alerts not working though. : ) I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

**Disclaimer: _NO I DON'T OWN IT, OKAY?_**

Chapter 9: Answered Prayers

Booth let out a sigh of relief and slumped back in his leather desk-chair. Cullen's secretary had just phoned him in his office '_to inform you that your meeting with the Deputy Director has been pushed to eleven am tomorrow_', because apparently he was now '_otherwise engaged_' for the rest of the day. The woman had not gone into any detail about what was suddenly so important, but Booth couldn't care less. He was just glad for the extra time, no matter how small, to try and make even a minor breakthrough in the case. At the moment it was a disaster. He couldn't find any connection between the two victims, nor could he come up with any possible motive for their deaths. There was very limited evidence – nothing as straight forward as prints or DNA, nothing that gave them any clue as to what kind of person the killer was, other than a complete nutter. They only knew _how_ he killed them and what he did with them after, with all that death ritual stuff that made _no_ _sense at_ _all_. Heck, their first victim was still a Jane Doe! So yeah, he could _really_ use that minor breakthrough right now. Leaning forward and picking up the phone, Booth dialled Temperance's office.

"Brennan."

"Hey Bones. Miss me?" Booth said, smirking into the phone. He heard his partner snort back at him.

"Hardly Booth, you only dropped me off a few hours ago."

"Huh well you never know…sometimes I can just be plain irresistible."

"Uhuh, whatever Booth. So why are you calling? Or do _you_ miss _me_ already?" she teased back.

"Psh, yeah right Bones! I spend far too much time in the company of squints as it is, jeez. Nah, Cullen's pushed the meeting to tomorrow, so we've got a bit more time to dig around and try and get something on this case. I figured I'd go back to that pet store and show the owner the picture of the boy, Miguel, and see if he knew him. It's a bit of a long shot, I don't think we'll get much from him, but it's better than doing nothing. Do you want to come with me?"

"Yeah sure. I'll…oh no, actually I can't, sorry. I've got a report here that I really have to finish." She did sound genuinely sorry. He noted this in the back of his mind. "You just go without me and tell me about it later."

"Alright. I was also thinking we'd start circulating the picture of our Jane Doe, give it to the press and hope that someone recognises her and comes forward."

"Hmm, I suppose that's a good idea. It's the only option we've got left, isn't it? We can't match the face and the dental records turned up nothing – although from the state of her teeth I'm not really surprised at that, I'd bet she's never been near a dentist in her life...unfortunately for us.

"Yeah. And I figured it doesn't really matter about the exposure. The killer would already know by now that we've found her, and I don't think much will come of him hearing that we have no idea who she is. Other than boosting his ego, I don't reckon it'll make much of a difference. In fact it might work well for us – in most cases, the cockier they get, the more mistakes they make and the easier it is to catch them."

"Well here's hoping it works then." Temperance said, trying to sound convinced.

There was a pause and then, "Ok, well I'll let you get on to that report then. I'll give you a call if anything thrilling happens."

"Anything thrilling?" she repeated sceptically.

"Yeah, you know, like maybe the guys pet turtle will suddenly gain the gift of speech and tell me who the killer is and where I can find him, effectively solving the case for me!"

She couldn't help but laugh at her partner's idiocy. "Uhuh, sure Booth. You know, if that happens you should probably ring an ambulance instead of me. You may need to get your head checked."

Booth just laughed back. He was about to say something back when he heard the murmur of a voice on the other end of the line, and then Temperance answering "No." In a rather defensive tone.

"Hey Bones, everything ok there?"

"Uh, yes thank you." Her voice had changed, she now sounded very professional. "I'll send you a copy of the report tomorrow if that's alright."

"Huh, what report? Bones what's going on?"

Booth heard more talking from the other person then, "Angela! You can't... " He heard the phone click and the other voice was suddenly loud and clear.

"Hey Booth!" Said the familiar cheeky voice.

"Uh, Hi Angela. What _are_ you doing to Bones?"

"Me? _I'm_ not doing anything. She's the one that's lying! Pretending that she was talking to some random...as if I didn't know she was talking to you."

"Angela!" He heard Temperance groan. Apparently he was on speaker phone.

"What? Oh come on. Who else would you say needed to get his head checked? Not that I'm saying you do Booth. You seem perfectly sane to me. It's this one I'm not so sure about." she said, obviusly talking about her friend. "Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about this morning...and last night."

"Uh, what about it Angela?" Booth didn't like the sound of this.

"Well last time I saw you I'd left you alone with my darling friend here, eating Thai food and talking about handcuffing her to a table. Then I get to work and what do I find?" Booth waited with a grimace on his face for her to answer her own question. "I find that her car is in the parking lot, as I expected, but _she_ isn't anywhere to be found! And then she arrives at 9, which I can assure you she has never done in her life. Then when I ask her why she's late and how she got to work she says she just slept in late and that she drove _herself_ here. So I asked myself - why would she lie about driving herself to work? And of course the only reason I could think of was that someone else had driven her here, which meant that someone must have driven her home last night as well! Now Booth, who exactly was with her last night, I can't seem to remember?" This whole speech was accompanied by constant complaints from Temperance, pleading with Angela to stop bothering Booth.

Booth opted for telling the truth, and hoping Angela would believe him. "Alright Angela so I drove Bones home last night. And picked her up again this morning. It's not that big a deal. She was too tired last night to drive so I offered her a ride. Is that ok with you?"

"Oh trust me." came the excited reply. "I have _no_ problem with that! Just tell me one more thing - Why was she so late this morning?"

This time Temperance answered for herself. "Angela I've already told you, and Booth just said the same thing. I was _tired_. I slept in. Now will you _please_ leave me be? And stop hassling Booth with stupid questions?!"

Booth could practically hear Angela grinning. "Sure sweetie, no problem. I'm just glad you two finally slept together!"

"What! We didn't...!" But apparently she had already left the room. Temperance sighed and Booth heard the click as she took him off speaker phone. "Sorry Booth. she got to the speaker phone button before me, it really couldn't be avoided."

"Haha it's alright. I don't think you could have stopped her. She seemed to be on a mission."

"You can say that again." She replied grudgingly. "God she's embarassing."

Booth laughed at the thought of Bones being embarassed. "Don't worry about it Bones. Seriously. I'll talk to you later, ok?"

"Yeah, sure. Bye."

"See ya."

He replaced the phone on the receiver, stood up from his chair, grabbed his jacket and strode out of the office.

* * *

Booth re-entered his office the next morning with a great feeling of foreboding. He had gone to see the pet shop owner yesterday, but the old man hadn't recognised the boy. He _had_ tried to sell Booth several animals, but that was no help at all. The picture of the old woman had gone on the evening news last night as well but, unfortunately, he couldn't really expect a response immediately. So he wasn't holding his hopes out for an ID today, especially not before 11am. Booth had a few hours to kill before his meeting with Cullen. He sifted through some paperwork, then made a quick call to Temperance just to double check that she had no extra information for him, which she didn't. In the last ten minutes he skimmed over the notes that he _did_ have on the case, then he made his slow way over to his boss' office. Cullen's secretary waved him in and he stepped reluctantly through the door. Cullen looked up from behind his desk when Booth entered, and gave him a smile. 

"Have a seat Agent Booth. You're here to give me an update on the progress of your case, am I correct?"

Booth took a seat in a chair in front of his desk and nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Well let's hear it then."

Booth was sure that Cullen had a fairly good idea of how the case was going but he was still going to make him say it. "Um, well sir, it's not _great_. We've got an ID on the second victim and we interviewed the family, but they couldn't give us much. Um, Bones'…ah Dr Brennan's team got some soil from both of the victims. The first lot didn't give us much; it was just plain dirt that's found all over DC. The second lot was a bit better, apparently from somewhere near the Potomac River and Dr. Hodgins says that both types could be found together if it was further back from the river." Booth explained, using the notes in his hands as a reference.

Cullen eyed Booth. "So you don't have an ID on the first victim?"

"Uh, not yet sir. But we gave a picture of her to the press yesterday and it was on the evening news so hopefully someone will recognise her and let us know…"

"Is that all?" Cullen was looking less than pleased with the situation.

"Um, well…" Just then, the sound of Booths phone ringing cut across his awkward speech. He glanced apologetically at his boss, who just nodded, then pulled his phone out of his pocket, stood up and turned to face away from Cullen.

"Booth." He answered.

"Yes that's me."

"You've got what?"

"And you're sure it's the same?"

"Dammit. Ah alright, where?"

"Right, thanks. I'll be there as soon as I can. Yes. Bye." He hung up and turned back to Cullen with a grim expression. "Turns out that's not all, sir. They've just found another body." Cullen winced, and then waved his hand towards the door.

"Alright go. I'll talk to you later."

Thank you, sir." Booth nodded and walked out of the room. _Well_, he thought as he strode back to his office to grab his car keys, _he had prayed for a breakthrough. Unfortunately this was the one breakthrough he did _not_ want.

* * *

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	10. Elisabeth Maria Jacobson

**Please put away your torches and pitch forks, I've updated! I want to thank some of my most loyal reviewers- _ktlyn, RedRoses18, Bellabun, bb-4ever, saturn567, Halfpastdead001_- you guys are great! Without your brilliant reviews I might have given up!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bones, but I do own any of the new characters in this story! **

**Chapter 10: Elisabeth Maria Jacobson**

They arrived at the crime scene just before midday, after Booth had driven past the Jeffersonian to pick up Temperance. They both got out of the car and surveyed the scene. They were standing at the beginning of a wide, pebbled path with a wrought-iron archway curving over it, and a sign to the left that said 'Washington Botanical Gardens'.

Booth flashed his badge at a cop standing in the entrance and he waved them through. They followed the directions of various other cops along winding paths that became gradually narrower as they progressed, and were bordered with every kind of plant, shrub and flower you could think of.

"This place is a bloody maze." Booth commented huffily, obviously in a bad mood.

Finally they came round a bend and stopped. Ahead of her Temperance saw two men in PD uniforms, both with their backs turned to her and Booth. One was crouched down and she assumed he was looking at the remains. The other was standing next to him and talking in a low voice. Looking further past the men she saw that the greenery curved round, turning the small path into a dead end.

Booth lifted the yellow tape that was stretched in front of them, between two trees, and they both ducked under it. The two policemen turned around when they approached. Temperance recognised the one that was standing from the previous crime scene. She was pretty certain he was the one who had joked about there being a serial killer, and her feeling was confirmed when Booth shot the young man a glare.

The other, older, man stood up with difficulty. Eyeing him, Temperance didn't think his weight or his age agreed with him bending his knees like that. He held his hand out to Booth, and introduced himself as Lieutenant Walters.

Temperance ignored the three men talking as she edged around the officers and took up the position the Lieutenant had vacated, directly in front of the remains. She sighed and closed her eyes for an instant. Reopening them, she looked at the now familiar scene. The bones lay on a white bed-sheet on the pebbled ground. There were fewer candles than before and all of them had gone out. The two masks next to the real skull were less scary in the daylight, but the gaping eye holes were still quite alarming.

Another mask sat on a small bench behind the bones that would normally be used by tourists to rest their legs as they wandered around the maze of gardens. As well as the mask there were two burnt out candles and, lying flat, a worn photograph. She couldn't see the photo very well because of the angle it was on, and also because there was a small, slightly squashed, pink-ish daisy sitting on top of it, blocking part of the picture. Temperance noted that the usual groupings of flowers were missing from the scene, but then again, they were completely surrounded by various bushes and trees that were covered in the things.

She noticed the Lieutenant move. Glancing up at Booth, who had just moved up behind her, she saw him wince. She understood his reaction: he was no Forensic Anthropologist, but even he could see that these were the bones of a very young human being. Temperance turned away and focused her thoughts on the job at hand. Quickly assessing the remains, she relayed her findings.

"Female. Between the ages of 5 and 7. Caucasian. Similar markings, again, on the bones to those on the other victims." She moved round to the side, by the skull, and leaned over, careful not to disturb anything. "There's an incision on the C7 vertebrae too."

By now Booth understood this terminology. "Her throat was slit?"

"Yes." She looked up at him.

"Same as the others?"

"I can't be sure. I'll get Zach to match it to the other ones he matched back at the lab."

"You said the other ones were tied up, was she?"

Temperance examined the shoulder and wrist bones. "No, not that I can tell. But she's so small, it probably wasn't necessary..."

Booth nodded grimly. "Alright let's go." He held out his hand to help her up, and she took it. Temperance gave a few last orders to the retrieval team, then Booth ushered her out and back through the network of winding paths to his car.

* * *

Booth arrived back at the lab later that afternoon. He had dropped Temperance off a few hours ago and then gone back to his own office. He swiped his card and stepped up onto the platform. Temperance lifted her gaze from the remains on the table in front of her and looked at her partner, waiting for him to speak. Zach, engrossed in the bones before him, just ignored him. 

"I've got a list and pictures of all the girls within the age bracket that have gone missing in the last 2 months from the DC area." Booth said, holding up the folder in his hand.

"Oh okay. Well, Angela started the face a while ago. She might be done by now. Shall we go and see?"

"Yup, sure."

"Are you ok here Zach?" She asked as she stripped off her gloves.

"Yes Dr. Brennan. I've just got to match the knife marks on the throat…"

"Alright. Thanks Zach." She followed Booth down the steps and across the lab.

Booth turned the corner into Angela's office and rain straight into Angela herself coming the other way. He put his arm out to stop her falling over.

"Woah, you okay Ange?"

"Yeah I'm good. You know, apart from feeling like I just walked into a brick wall. You really should give a girl some warning before you charge into her office." She grinned at him.

"Hey, who was charging?!" He said in mock indignation. "We were just coming to see if you'd finished with the face of the new victim. The little girl."

Angela looked over his shoulder at her friend who had apparently just managed to stop short of running into Booth as well.

"Hey hon. Actually I was just coming out to show you. It's, uh…" She looked down at the floor and saw that it was covered in bits of paper. "Well it's on the floor somewhere now." She laughed and bent down with Booth to pick them up. Most of the paper was from the folder that Booth had been holding and he quickly shoved it all back in, suddenly finding a new appreciation for paper clips, which had managed to keep most of the papers in order.

They stood up again and Angela handed him the printout of a blonde, round-faced little girl with big grey eyes and a small nose. Booth reopened the folder and started juggling bundles of paper around until he found the thing he was looking for. He unclipped a photograph, turned around to face Temperance, and held it up next to the drawing for her to see.

"What do you think?" He asked.

She examined the two pictures, and then nodded. "They're the same, Booth."

He moved out of the doorway and handed the pictures to Angela, then he looked over the file that the photo had been attached to.

"Elisabeth Maria Jacobson. 5 and a half years old. Went missing from her home in Western Heights…10 days ago." Temperance noticed his sad expression as he looked back at the pictures that Angela handed him.

"At least we know who she is now Booth." She offered.

He looked up and gave her a small smile. "Yeah. Thanks Bones."

They made their way back across the lab now with Angela in tow, and met Zach on the platform peering through a microscope.

"It's definitely the same knife used on the other victims, Dr. Brennan." He said without looking up. She went and stood next to him and he moved aside so she could look into the microscope and compare the plaster models of the incisions for herself.

Straightening up again, Temperance saw Hodgins sitting at a desk looking over the crime scene photos. He spun round on his chair to face them.

"So the whole scene was the same again?" He asked, looking between Temperance and Booth.

"Pretty much." Booth answered. "Just a different location. And a different dead person. And a different photograph."

Temperance cut in. "Did you manage to ID that photo? Of the little Hispanic girl?"

Booth shook his head. "No. I even went back through five years of missing Hispanic girls. I thought that maybe these people in the photos are already dead or something. I dunno, maybe this guy killed them years ago, and he's decided to do the same again. Or something like that. Who knows how this sicko's mind works? Anyway, there wasn't any match, so for the moment my theory's staying as it is, a theory."

Temperance wasn't sure what she thought of Booth's 'theory', but she forgot about it for now. She turned to Hodgins. "Also there weren't any flowers on the actual scene, but I don't think that makes a huge difference because it was in the middle of a botanical garden, so it was surrounded by flowers anyway."

Hodgins nodded and peered closely at one of the photos. "No it probably doesn't matter much in comparison to the big picture. In fact…there, just to the right of the remains, there's a bunch of marigold bushes. So we've even got the right flowers, he just didn't bother to pick them."

They all stood, or sat, in silence for a few moments, absorbing the information. Then Booth spoke. "Ok then. Bones, what do you think of going to see this little girl's…Elisabeth's…family?"

Temperance grimaced at the thought of having to tell yet another set of parents that their child was dead. Murdered, no less.

Booth noticed and gave her a sympathetic smile."Come on. Best to get it over with, eh?"

She nodded in agreement.

Booth waited for her to change out of her lab coat, then they left the lab together, Booth's hand guiding his partner out of the door towards his car and another awkward and cheerless afternoon.

* * *

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	11. By the Light of the Stars

**Chapter 11: By the Light of the Stars**

Sitting in the passenger seat of Booth's car, Temperance was looking out of the window and watching the huge houses flash by, with their big gardens and high fences.

She pointed out number 37 to Booth and he pulled into the driveway. An iron gate across the drive barred their way. Spotting an intercom to his left, Booth wound down the window and jabbed the buzzer repeatedly until he heard a voice.

"Can I help you?" It said, clearly annoyed.

"Yes you can. I'm special Agent Booth from the FBI. Would you mind opening the gate?" Booth replied with equal curtness.

"Oh, er just a moment then sir."

Seconds later the gate swung inwards. Glancing across at his partner, Booth found her watching him with her piercing eyes.

"What?" he asked defensively.

"Nothing…it's just, you seem a bit…on edge." She said diplomatically.

He stared out the windscreen as he drove forward, down the pebbled drive. He sighed.

"I guess… it's just hard to think that even with all of this- the big house and the gate and everything- a 6 year old girl can still go missing, and turn up dead…"

Temperance couldn't think what to say. Certainly not anything helpful or comforting. It was a fact. A girl was dead. Instead she chose to take a leaf out of Booth's book. Reaching out, she put a hand on his arm. It's what he did when she felt horrible; physical contact, and it always made her feel at least a little better.

Booth looked at her hand, surprised, but then he looked up and smiled at her. "Thanks Bones." He said, and squeezed her hand.

Booth pulled up in front of the house. She smiled back, then pulled her hand away and got out of the car. She turned in the door to face him.

"Come on. Let's go find the man who did this."

* * *

"We're very sorry for your loss Mrs. Jacobson." 

Booth and Brennan were sitting on a cream leather settee in the centre of an overly spacious living room. Two of the walls were filled with bi-fold glass doors leading out to the large, elaborate garden. The floors were polished wood with a large cream rug in the centre, edged with the two couches and a glass coffee table in the middle.

The woman opposite them nodded, her lips trembling and her eyes bloodshot, as she tried to hold in her tears.

"Where did you…?"

"In the botanical gardens." Booth told her. "A worker found her this morning. I'm sorry."

She looked up from her clasped hands and turned her red-rimmed eyes on Temperance, as though she could give her all the answers. "What _happened_?"

Temperance shook her head in sympathy. "We don't know yet, Mrs Jacobson. That's why we're here, to try and figure it out."

Booth's face remained solemn, but on the inside he was very proud of his partner- 2 years ago she would have rambled on about the knife cut to the c7 vertebra and the flesh-eating rat marks, unintentionally causing great distress all around. Now she was being diplomatic, respectful and authoritative all at once, with not a single mention of any grisly injuries. She was truly amazing.

At that moment the thin, teary-eyed blonde woman stood up from the couch. "Oh thank God you're home Andrew!" She exclaimed.

A tall, good looking businessman with dark hair had just entered the room, and he went straight to the distressed woman.

What is it? I came as soon as I got Carl's call. Did they find her?" He questioned her intensely, searching her face with his eyes.

"Oh…oh Andrew." Was all she could say as she clutched his hand to her chest. Booth decided to intervene.

"Uh, Mr Jacobson?" The man switched his fierce gaze onto Booth.

"Yes."

"I'm Special Agent Seeley Booth from the FBI, this is Dr. Temperance Brennan. I'm very sorry to have to tell you this sir, but your daughter…Elisabeth, she's…"

Booth could see the man understood. First his eyes widened in shock, then his mouth opened and closed as though he couldn't find the words to express himself. Then he found the words. His face turned red and he yelled.

"What happened?! Who's responsible?! By God if someone did this to my little girl I will hunt them down…!"

Booth stood up facing the raging man. "Sir! I understand this is difficult for you but you have to calm down. We'll need your help if we are going to find the man who did this…"

"You mean someone _did_ do this?!"

"Yes. Yes sir I'm sorry but please…"

"Andrew stop! Please stop." His wife wailed as she tugged on his arm.

The man finally calmed down.

"Mr Jacobson. What has happened is awful, but I promise you we will try our hardest to find out who did this. To do that we will need your help. I'll need you to answer some of my questions."

There was a pause, then, "Alright…what do you need to know?"

Booth led them through some routine questions which didn't help them much, and they recognised neither the picture of Miguel Vasquez nor of their Jane Doe.

"Did you see anyone suspicious or out of place before Elisabeth went missing?" Booth asked.

"No, but I work a lot, so I wouldn't really know." He turned to his wife, who now had tears flowing freely down her face. "Amy?"

She shook her head. "No-one."

He turned back to Booth. "You should ask Carl, our manager. And the others. If anyone saw something it would be them."

"These are your employees? How many are there?"

"There's Carl, and the maid, the cook on week days, and the gardener."

"Are they all here at the moment?"

"I think so."

"Do you think I could talk to them?"

"Uh, yeah I guess so." He paused. "You don't think one of them had something to do with this?"

Booth could see the man's mind working furiously, and decided to put a stop to it quickly before he jumped to conclusions and got angry again.

"Not at all sir." He said complacently. "I just wanted to ask them a few questions, as you suggested."

Mr Jacobson hung his head. "Of course, I'm sorry I just…" He didn't finish the sentence, but Booth understood nonetheless.

Silently he turned and walked out of the room and Booth sat back down next to Temperance, who had opted to stay a silent observer for most of the exchange. The two partners heard voices and movement through the house and soon Mr Jacobson re-entered the room, followed by a solid African American man, a petite brunette and three Hispanic men.

"Agent Booth, this is Carl, our house manager. " Jacobson indicated the large, dark man to his left. "And the rest. I hope they can answer your questions. I… I hope they can help Elisabeth." Booth nodded and thanked him.

Glancing at his wife, who looked ready to drop, he asked plaintively, "Do you need us here? My wife, she…I think she needs to get away…"

"Of course sir." Both replied. "You can go. I think we'll be alright here." He again conveyed his regrets over the situation and the man led his shell-shocked wife from the room.

"Ok men. Lady." Booth addressed the group. "I'm Special Agent Booth from the FBI, this is Dr. Brennan. I'm sure you all know that Elisabeth Jacobson went missing 10 days ago from this home. This morning she was found, but unfortunately she wasn't alive. I'm hoping you will answer our questions so we can find out who and what happened to her. Alright?"

They all nodded.

"Good. First off then…" He asked them the usual questions. None of them had seen anything or anyone unusual, and none of them knew who little Miguel Vasquez or their Jane Doe was.

"Ok, can each of you tell me where you were around the time she went missing…" Booth consulted his file. "…about 6 last Tuesday night."

He went down the line asking each of them. The manager, Carl, had been in his office sorting bills and manning the intercom for the gate. The maid and the twenty-ish Hispanic man who was the gardener's assistant had both gone home, and the thirty-ish gardener had been cleaning up his shed in preparation for going home.

Booth got to the end of the line of employees and stood in front of a portly man who, by the various food stains on his shirt and hands, was obviously the cook.

"And you sir, where were you?" Booth asked, not being accusatory at all.

The man's face was flushed and he puffed out his chest at Booth, looking very affronted. "Why should I tell you? I didn't do nothing. I didn't even know the brat."

Booth glared at the man, but remained calm. "Of course not. Sir we're just asking so we can rule you out. Perhaps you saw something, wherever you were."

"I didn't see nothing and I didn't do nothing, I tell you!"

Temperance, standing at the other end of the line of people, saw Booth start to fume. She felt someone touch her arm and turned to see Carl leaning towards her.

"Miss," he said quietly. "I don't think he knows anything."

She looked at him curiously. "Well then why won't he just tell us where he was? He's making himself look very suspicious if he hasn't done anything."

"Ah well you see, he just doesn't want to tell you what he was really doing 'cause he might get fired."

"Well, what _was_ he doing?"

"Around 6 at night? He was probably down in the kitchen drinking."

"Drinking?" she asked disbelievingly. "Why don't _you_ fire him?"

"Well it never affects his cooking or anything, you see miss. "There's no real harm in it. He's just a bit lonely I think. He mentioned once, a while ago, that his wife died, something about a baby too. The way he said it made me think she mighta died in birthing, and with the baby dying too, you know. I just didn't have the heart to fire him, or tell on him. He's not bad really, just a bit defensive."

Temperance listened to Carl's explanation and nodded. "Thank you. He's still got to tell us where he was though. If he doesn't he just looks guilty anyway." She looked over at Booth arguing with the man. "And if he annoys Booth any more he's going to get arrested. I'll go talk to them." She nodded to Carl and moved to stand next to Booth.

"I'm telling you I didn't do nothing! It's cos I'm Puerto Rican isn't it? You got a thing against Puerto Ricans!"

Booth's fists were clenching and un-clenching at his sides. "Sir, I assure you…"

"You cops think all Puerto Ricans are criminals? You reckon we like killing little kids? And babies? What about them, you reckon it's our fault they die too?!"

Hearing this, Temperance decided to step in. "Sir we don't think any of those things. If you'd just tell us what you were doing. We don't care if you weren't meant to be doing it. We promise we won't tell Mr and Mrs Jacobson, we won't get you fired say, if you were drinking…"

Booth was giving her an odd look, but that expression soon disappeared at the man's next words.

"What are you talking about?! I wasn't drinking! Why would I be fired?! You bitch, are you threatening me?! Why, I'll…"

Before he could finish his sentence Booth had grabbed him by the front of his stained shirt and hauled him against the wall behind him. "Don't you DARE talk to her like that! And stop messing with me! You're impeding a Federal Investigation. If you don't tell us this _minute_ where you were that night I'll arrest you right now you…"

At that point Temperance recovered from her shock and stepped forward. She grabbed his arm. "Booth! Let him go, Booth!" She got in between the now cowering cook and the agent and pushed him in the chest. "Come on Booth, just leave it."

He let her push him backwards, away from the man and the wall.

To one side he heard the assistant gardener mutter, "Looks like Victor got into the alcohol early today."

Temperance remained in front of him, her hands on his chest, making sure he didn't make another lunge for the man. "Just leave it, ok Booth?" He looked down at her and at once half of his anger melted away.

"Sorry Bones, I just…"

She nodded. "I know." Turning away from him she addressed the perplexed man standing against the wall. "Shall I ask again? Were you in the kitchen drinking that night?"

He looked as though he was about to argue again, but he didn't. He nodded his agreement.

"Thank you. And did you see anything unusual around that time?"

"No." he answered. "Nothing and no-one else was down there. Just me."

"Fine." She turned back to Booth. "Is that all we had to ask?"

"Yes."

"Ok then let's go." She addressed the room at large. "If any of you think of anything else Agent Booth's number is on the table there. Thank you for answering our questions."

As the pair left the room they met Mr Jacobson in the doorway. Obviously he had heard the ruckus.

"Is everything ok Agent Booth?" He inquired.

"Yes sir." Booth answered. "Everything's fine. We were just leaving, thank you for your time."

"Of course." He walked them to the front door.

"I'm sorry, again, for your loss Mr Jacobson." Booth said seriously.

The man nodded mutely and the pair left the house.

* * *

"You know he deserved it." Booth said in the car on the way back to the Jeffersonian. 

"Doesn't mean you should have done it."

"He was being rude, he wasn't answering my questions and he called you…"

"I've been called worse Booth. You can't go round beating up every guy that's rude to me."

'_I can try_.' Booth thought to himself.

Temperance wasn't really angry at him, in fact she was strangely happy that Booth cared enough to stick up for her like that. However she pretended, for the sake of appearances, that she was offended that he thought she couldn't defend herself.

* * *

_He watched as she made her way across the huge parking lot. It was late and she was walking quickly, although he doubted it was because it was dark. Stepping out he made his way towards her at an angle, walking quickly so he wouldn't lose her. By the light of the stars he could see her dark brown hair hanging round her shoulders, her bag looped over one arm, and a large folder in the other. Her heels clicked against the concrete and he watched her twist round to get her keys from her bag, as she approached a silver car. He came up close behind her and she stopped. Reaching out, he put one arm round her middle and the other, over her mouth. She moved quickly, but he didn't let go. He got her elbow in his side, but still he didn't let go. She struggled, reaching behind her and scratching his face with her nails, then she dropped hard to her knees on the concrete. Seconds later the rest of her body followed._

_The car park was empty other than a few cars and the dark shadows that usually accompanied the night. Beside one of these cars lay a folder, open on the cold concrete, with a pile of papers inside. in the top corner was a photograph, attached with a paperclip. in the photograph was a blonde grey-eyed little girl, frozen smiling up at the dark sky and the stars above._

* * *

**Reviews are welcome!!!**


	12. Sleeping?

**I know this one's short but I updated pretty quickly with it, and the next one should be longer. I really want to know what you think, so please review!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but this storyline.**

**Chapter 12: Sleeping?**

The next morning Booth got the fright of his life.

At 11:00 Angela phoned him asking if Brennan was with him. When he said no, she seemed worried and started babbling and asked again if he was certain.

"Only, she hasn't been in all morning and I called her cell but she didn't answer and then I called her apartment but she didn't answer there either, and she didn't say anything about not coming in this morning and no-one else knows where she is. I've even checked her date book in her office and this morning was free. Are you SURE you don't know where she is?"

"Angela I'm sure. I haven't seen her since I dropped her off yesterday. In fact she even said she'd see me tomorrow when she got out of the car." He paused, thinking and feeling his own worry quickly building in his chest.

"Maybe she slept in again." He suggested hopefully.

"Maybe…but I've called her place three times in the last two hours and her mobile at least ten times! Wouldn't that have woken her up?"

"Yeah it should…but…well, she slept through me knocking and yelling through her door the other day…" Booth knew he was clutching at straws. "How about I go look for her at her apartment now. Can you think of anywhere else she would go? Where does she go when she's not at work?"

"When she's not at work!?!" Angela's voice suddenly went very high. "Booth she's ALWAYS at work!"

Booth sighed in frustration. "Angela I know. You think I don't know that!?! But there must be somewhere…"

At this point Booth was out of his office and running down fourteen flights of stairs to the car park, not willing to wait for an elevator.

"Well…I suppose I could check the gym, she might be there…" Angela didn't sound convinced, but at least it was an idea. _Might_ be there was better then the alternative.

Booth reached his car very out of breath and started it up. "Alright Ange, you go to the gym then. It's worth a shot. Call me if you find her." _Or if you don't_, he thought, but left it unsaid.

"Ok, same goes for you. I'll talk to you soon." Angela replied, still sounding frightened, but slightly less panicked now that Booth was taking charge. She had saved calling Booth as a last resort, but he was the very best last resort. If anyone could find Bren it would be him; those two were like magnets for one another - complete polar opposites, and yet they just couldn't keep away from one another.

After allowing herself this tiny, comforting thought she ran off to her car and in search of her best friend.

* * *

Booth stood in front of her apartment door, knocking hard and calling her name. He gave up sooner than he had last time and pulled out his key. Again he held his gun ready at his side and again he searched every room in the apartment and AGAIN everything was in perfect order. Only this time all of the curtains were wide open.

He moved to her bedroom door and sent a prayer up to heaven that he would find her fast asleep in her bed on the other side.

But he was not so lucky.

Quickly pushing open the door he found the room empty. The curtains in here were also open and the sun shone cheerfully through the window onto the neatly made bed. He ran his free hand through his hair and kicked the door frame in anger, barely noticing the pain.

He moved forward into the room and turned full circle, just to be sure he hadn't missed anything. He hadn't. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialled.

"Hey Angela. Did you find her?"

"No she's not in her apartment either. There's no sign of her. It's perfectly tidy; she left just like usual this morning. Either that or," he dreaded the thought, "or she didn't make it home last night."

"Look Ange, it'll be alright. I'll meet you at the Jeffersonian, ok?"

"Good. And Ange? We'll find her. I promise."

He hung up and sunk down on the edge of his missing partner's bed. Head in hands, he whispered to the room.

"Where are you, Bones?"

* * *

Temperance could slowly feel herself gaining consciousness. Bit by bit she became aware of her body. First she noticed the pounding headache that was pushing against her temples. Then she felt the ache in her neck and shoulders, and a sting in her arm…a throbbing in her leg. Then her whole body felt stiff. And she was _cold_.

Eventually she noticed that her eyes were closed, and slowly she opened them. For a second she thought that she hadn't opened them at all, but of course they were. It was just that, wherever she was, it was pitch black.

All of a sudden she was terrified. She was not meant to be here! Where _was_ 'here'? What had happened to her? Her wide eyes flicked everywhere in her panic, still seeing nothing. Cautiously she moved her stiff arms to help herself sit up.

She shivered, feeling the cold concrete against her palms, and understood at least why she was so sore. She had been lying unconscious on this hard floor for…she tried to think how long and suddenly the memory of the night before came rushing back - walking to her car after work, hearing someone behind her, being grabbed, a sharp smell, lashing out, feeling dizzy, falling, and falling, and…and nothing.

Thinking of the struggle, she decided to take stock of her injuries. She started from the top. Headache: well that was understandable. From the dizziness earlier she could conclude that some form of narcotic was used on her, effectively knocking her out. Her neck and shoulders were sore from lying in one position on the hard ground for so long.

Touching it gingerly, she noticed her left forearm was grazed, probably from the fall in the car park. She moved on to her left leg, which was throbbing quite insistently, in particular her knee. Feeling around the area she realised that her jeans had been torn and the skin of her knee had been scraped badly enough that she could feel the congealed blood covering it.

Deciding next to test her mobility, she moved her leg. Pain shot up her leg and she cried out, her head suddenly pounding with renewed force, on top of the invisible knives attacking the nerves in her leg. She sat there for what felt like an eternity, clutching her thigh (the closest she could get to the source of the pain without causing more) and praying for it all to stop.

While her injuries took up most of her attention, one other thought did cross her mind - in the state she was in, she was definitely not going anywhere soon.

* * *

**Please review! If I get lots of reviews maybe I'll be inspired to update quickly again :) There's no point in writing if I don't know what you guys think of it!**


	13. The Most in the World

**Chapter 13: The Most in the World**

**_Previously:_**

"_Look Ange, It'll be alright. I'll meet you at the Jeffersonian, ok?"_

"_Good...and Ange? We'll find her. I promise."_

_He hung up and sunk down on the edge of his missing partner's bed. Head in hands, he whispered to the room._

"

* * *

Booth pulled up outside the Jeffersonian and leaped out of the car, making his way quickly to the front doors. He was almost there when he looked to his left…and stopped dead in his tracks. 

There, in its usual parking space, was Bones's car.

Cautiously, he moved towards it, flipping open his phone at the same time.

"Hey, Angela." He said into the phone. "Are you back at the lab?"

"Is she there?"

"No, it's just…did you know her car was here?"

"Yes it's…" He came round the back of the car and stopped. "Ange. You'd better come down here."

Hanging up he slid his phone into his pocket and took a step forward. He crouched beside the driver's door and looked down. Lying open on the ground was the folder containing all the information on the Elisabeth Jacobson case. Other than him, Bones was the only one with this file, so it had to be hers.

He stared at the picture of the young girl, robbed of her life, _murdered_, long before her time, until he had to look away.

Booth couldn't help but feel dread seeing the picture. He knew there was no evidence of a connection between Elisabeth's death and the sudden disappearance of his partner (in fact he could hear Bones herself telling him not to jump to conclusions). But the fact that this small girl's fate was here, staring him in the face, in the centre of all this chaos, put terror in his heart, with the thought that maybe…just maybe, it foreshadowed the fate of his own Bones.

* * *

"What should we do?" 

They were back inside the lab. After Angela had arrived, with Hodgins in tow, they had searched around the car looking for the tiniest bit of evidence that could tell them what had happened to their friend. They found her car locked and her keys pushed underneath it.

Hodgins also found minimal bloodstains on the concrete not far from where the folder lay, causing tears to spring into Angela's eyes and Booth's fear to increase tenfold.

Now they were in the lab, Angela perched on the couch, Booth pacing back and forth, and Zach and Hodgins standing anxiously to one side.

"What should we do?" Zach repeated after surmising that no one had heard him the first time.

Booth stopped pacing. "Keep working on the case. There's nothing else we can do right now…and Bones wouldn't want us to drop the case just because she's not here…"

Angela looked up at him. "Do you think it has something to do with the case?" She asked uneasily.

Booth kept his eyes on the wall in front of him. "I don't know. There's no obvious connection…but it's not like we know exactly what's going on with this case anyway. With those pictures at the crime scenes that we can't ID. I can't even get a feel for it." He sighed. "I don't know. We don't have any other theories either." He turned to Zach and Hodgins. "The only real way we can find out is if we solve this case."

They took the hint and left to resume their work, now with double motives for solving the case.

"What are _you_ going to do?" Angela asked Booth when they'd left. He shook his head slowly and sighed, finally turning to look her in the eye.

"I don't know. We don't have any leads. I don't even know where to _start_. I guess I've got to inform Cullen soon. He'll tell me to file a missing persons report. After that…I don't know."

Angela nodded, feeling sorry for the man standing in front of her. She was terrified for her friend as well, but she knew that Booth felt the extra burden of being responsible for finding her again, before anything truly dreadful happened.

It didn't help either, that he was in love with her. And he _was_. She knew it. She'd seen them on the platform together, all those days ago. And how he'd come immediately, food in hand, when she told him that Temperance wouldn't leave work that night; and how he'd insisted on driving her home and then gone to pick her up again at some ridiculous hour in the morning; and then panicked when he thought she wasn't home, and let her continue sleeping when he'd discovered she was. Not to mention his reaction today when he had realised she really _was_ missing.

Angela knew he loved her. Even if he didn't know it himself. Although by now, she suspected he did.

* * *

Some hours later Booth's phone rang. Seeing the number for the lab on his caller id he picked it up immediately. 

"Booth."

"Hey Booth. It's Angela. How's it going?"

"Still nothing. What about you guys? Why are you calling?" He didn't mean to sound rude, but if she had some answers for him he wanted to know straight away.

Angela didn't take offence. "Zach found something in the remains. On the teeth, right Zach?"

"Yes." Zach's voice came over the phone. "I was going over the remains again and I noticed something on the dentures. I magnified it further and discovered small particles lodged between the central and lateral maxillary incisors." He paused.

"And?" Booth asked impatiently. "What are they?"

This time Hodgins answered him. "I had them analysed and discovered traces of Trichloroethylene, and other similar substances, which is a common chemical used in adhesives, paint removers, metal polishers, correction fluids, stain removers, insecticides, carpet cleaners…"

Booth interrupted his spiel. "That's great, but what does it have to do with anything?"

"If you would let me finish," Hodgins said, irritated at Booth's interruption. "The point is that Trichloroethylene is a form of sedative. It's not a very reliable one, it can cause things such as skin irritation, especially if it's handled often, but mostly it'll do the job."

"So she swallowed this stuff?"

"Actually I think she inhaled it. For it to work the right way something would have to be soaked in it and held over her mouth. At this concentration and at her age, if she'd swallowed it, she would have died reasonably quickly. And it wouldn't have been pretty. Also there would be a lot more on her teeth if she'd swallowed it."

"Ok…so she was knocked out with it. Is that it?"

"No there's more. We also found traces of…"

"Look." Booth cut in again. "Why don't you just tell me what it means? I don't need all the scientific detail. Okay?"

"Fine. We found a bunch of other stuff that means the stuff she inhaled came from an insecticide. Can't be sure what kind because it's a pretty common mixture. Also there would have to be quite a bit of the stuff on whatever was covering her mouth to knock her out."

"Thank you. That's great. So…insecticides? Who would have those?"

"Usually professionals. It's the industrial kind, so gardening firms, maybe people with really large areas of garden that would attract infestations…"

"Large, as in big enough to hire a personal gardener, large?" Booth asked, his mind starting to make possible connections.

"Yeah, probably. Why? Got something in mind?"

"I think so. The girl lived in a massive house. And it had a pretty big garden too, complete with personal gardener…I think I'm going to go and pay him another visit."

"Do you think he could have done it?" Angela jumped in.

"I have no idea, but I guess I'm about to find out…" He paused, wondering whether to add another thought he had just had. He did. "Him and his assistant were also in the group of people Bones and I talked to there last, before she disappeared."

He heard Angela gasp.

"But that doesn't mean anything yet." He added quickly. "Remember we don't even know if there's a connection. Just don't freak out yet, ok?"

"A bit late for that." Hodgins muttered. "She's already missing."

"Jack!" Angela exclaimed, angry at his insensitive comment.

Booth felt a stab in his chest at the words, but didn't say anything. "I'll see you guys later then." He told them and quickly hung up the phone.

He put his head in his hands, his elbows resting on his desk. God, he didn't know if he could take much more of this. Not knowing where she was. Not having any leads so he could _find out_ where she was. Not even knowing which bastard to be angry at for taking her! He knew there was only one thing he could do at the moment. Even if he couldn't see how it would help.

Standing up abruptly, he grabbed his keys and left his office, going back to the Jacobson's, and to find their gardener.

* * *

"I'm sorry, he hasn't been here today." Carl, the house manager for the Jacobsons, told him. 

"Is he meant to be?" Booth inquired.

"Well, yeah he is…"

"Do you know _why_ Mr Delgado isn't here?"

"Well no…but he could be sick or something. I dunno. It's not a major. Peter's here, so it's not a big deal if he misses a day…"

"Peter being…?"

"Oh, his assistant. Fidel is the main gardener but Peter helps him out, and Fidel teaches him stuff too."

"Would Peter know where Mr Delgado is?"

"I don't know. You're welcome to ask him. He'll be in the garden or the shed." He pointed out of the doorway, where they were standing, towards the garden as he spoke. "The shed's just round the corner."

"Thanks." Booth turned and walked across the lawn, looking round trees and huge groups of neatly pruned bushes, looking for the man.

He found him on his knees near the fence, pulling weeds from a flower bed.

"Peter?"

The young man twisted round and squinted up at him. "Agent Booth!" He exclaimed, obviously recognising him from the day before. He stood up and brushed the dirt off his knees. "Can I help you?"

"Do you know where Mr Delgado is today? Carl up in the house told me he wasn't around today."

"No sir. I have no idea. It's unusual for him to take a day off and not tell me. Or Carl. Why?"

"I just wanted to talk to him about a few things. Has he been away a lot recently?"

The man thought about it for a second. "I suppose he has. Not that often though really. He said he had the flu- headaches, fevers- and he's been away a bit, on and off, you know? He won't take more than one or two days off at once because he doesn't like to miss work. But it's not very clever because he comes back to work too quickly, and then he just gets sick again because he didn't get over it the first time."

"Uhuh. So you think he's at home sick?"

"I guess."

Booth decided to change tactics. He obviously wouldn't get much more on him from this guy. "Well seeing as I'm here, maybe you could answer my questions."

"Sure."

"Great. First off, do you keep any insecticides around here?"

"Yeah of course. They're in the shed."

"Have you used them recently?"

"No. I hardly ever use them."

"What about Mr Delgado?"

"I dunno. I'm pretty sure he hasn't used them in a while either…"

"Have you noticed any missing?"

"What? Missing? No. I don't know, I haven't really looked…why?"

"No reason."

"I can go look for you…"

"I think that's a very good idea. Let's go." Peter gave him an odd look, but turned and moved off in the direction of the shed, with Booth following behind. As they walked, Booth's mind was turning over and over, processing all of the information he'd been given, trying to fill in the information he hadn't been given, and sorting through thousands of scenarios.

He was trying very hard not to jump to conclusions about the 'sick' gardener, but it was not going so well. Usually Bones would keep his wild scenarios in check, and he found himself disgustingly incapable of coming up with both sides of an argument.

_Since when had he become so dependent on Bones to help him with standard FBI work?_ He tried to feel annoyed about it but he really couldn't be when the thing he wanted most in the world right now was to have her standing right next to him telling him how ridiculous his theories were. However, she was not here and therefore he was going to continue being strongly suspicious of this new suspect. In fact right now, their new suspect was also their best suspect.

They reached the garden shed and Booth followed Peter the gardener inside. He stood in the centre of the packed but well-organised room as Peter made his way over to the far wall. He bent down and poked his head under a wooden bench. Reaching right into the back, he eventually pulled out a large plastic bottle with warning labels like "danger" and "keep out of reach of children" plastered all over it.

Booth was about to question Peter about the contents of the bottle but he turned away as soon as he put it down and buried his head under the bench again. He pulled out another container with similar labelling and then went back under.

This time he spent significantly longer under there and Booth could hear him shifting things around and muttering curses every time he whacked his head on the solid wood above. Eventually he re-emerged frowning.

"What?" Booth asked, assuming something was wrong.

"Well, er…" He stood up and ran a hand nervously through his hair. "I…I think there's a bottle missing."

"You think? Could you be a bit more specific?" Booth asked agitatedly.

The young man paused, thinking. "Yeah. The tyrinol is missing. It should be right under here."

"Are you sure it's not anywhere else in here?"

He pulled a face. "Does it look like anything would be out of place in here to you?"

Booth ignored the attitude. "Just check. It's no use to me if it turns up somewhere in here next week because someone forgot to put it back in the right place."

Peter yielded and spent the next few minutes scouring the rest of the shed for the tyrinol. He didn't find it.

"Fine then." Booth said. "What is this stuff that's missing?"

"Basically? Heavy duty insecticides. Just like you said you were looking for. Otherwise I wouldn't have mentioned it."

"Alright. Well do you know what could have happened to them? Could someone have taken them without you knowing?"

"You mean stolen them? Why would someone steal gardening stuff?"

"It doesn't matter why. Just answer the question."

"Could someone have taken them? Well not really. I mean the shed's locked at night. And during the day it would be pretty obvious if someone was walking across the lawn with a massive bottle like that. It's the same size as these here."

"And you're sure no one else just used it up, or moved it for some reason?"

"Well yeah. I'd know if Fidel had used it, and he wouldn't have used all of it anyway, and no one else touches the garden. I think two gardeners are enough don't you?"

Booth grunted. "And you and Mr Delgado are the only ones with keys to the shed?"

"Uh yeah. I think Carl's got a spare somewhere, but he never uses it."

Booth paused for a long moment, thinking. "Is there _any_ reason _at all_ that Mr Delgado, or Carl, would have taken it?" He was answered with an emphatic "no".

Booth nodded grimly. He had looked at it from every angle and exhausted every other possibility. Bones would have been proud of him. He cringed inwardly at the thought of his partner.

He looked back at Peter. "Would you know Fidel Delgado's address by any chance? I think I'm going to pay him a visit."

* * *

**Sorry there's no Temperance in this chapter. There will be in the next one.**

**And the more reviews I get, the faster I update said chapter!**


	14. By the Light of the Sun

**Chapter 14: By the Light of the Sun**

Temperance sat in relative darkness, leaning up against the cold wall and trying to ignore the pounding in her head, the sting in her arm and the throbbing in her now swollen leg. For once in her life she was failing miserably.

Earlier she had forced herself to map out her makeshift jail. She had managed to hobble very slowly along the walls, keeping her weight off her left leg and feeling her way with her hands. What she had discovered on her trip was that her jail was more like a large garage, or an old car shed of some description. In any case, there was a distinct smell of oil and the place was concrete from floor to ceiling.

At the far the end of the wall to the right was a metal door. She had spent some time yanking and twisting the handle, trying to open it, but eventually she acknowledged that it was firmly locked. Taking up the whole of the next wall were two metal roll-up doors, but she soon learned that they were also locked fast. Part of the next wall had a bench attached to it, but there was nothing more than a thick layer of dust on the top of it.

Eventually she made her way back to what she guessed to be her original position and sunk to the floor with her back against the wall.

She had no idea how long she had been sitting there since then. The only indication that any time had passed at all was the tiny slits of sunlight now coming through small gaps between the roller doors and the wall. It wasn't very much though, barely enough to see that the rest of the room was devoid of any dark objects for her to investigate or make use of.

After many minutes, or hours (she wasn't sure which), Temperance decided that, if she was going to be stuck in here for a while, she may as well use her time productively. In other words, she should try to figure out what exactly had happened to her, why it had happened to her and how she could get herself out of the situation.

She already had a vague idea what had happened – she had been knocked out in the parking lot at work, kidnapped and brought here. The only problem was she didn't know where here was. That piece of the puzzle would have to wait until later. She had already made as much effort as she was going to just mapping out the building and she didn't think she had the energy to do it again for a while.

As for the question of why this had happened to her, she couldn't think of anything that seemed particularly likely. She hadn't had any threats recently (as far as she knew). Could this have something to do with her father? She didn't think so. The men he had warned her of probably would have killed her instantly...and left her somewhere for him to find.

What else could it be? The case? Again, she didn't think so. She couldn't see any connection. The victims were weak - two children and an older woman; the two older ones had been tied up, she wasn't; there was no evidence here of the unusual masks and suchlike that had been used on their altars; it didn't look like this room had been in frequent use for a while; and as far as she knew, none of them had been knocked out with any kind of chemical, like she had. Unfortunately she and Booth had not yet figured out the guy's motive, but she was pretty sure that the case had nothing to do with her own kidnapping.

She came to a dead end. Her next line of inquiry was how she could get out of here. Again, it was rather difficult. All of the doors were locked, there were no windows, there was nothing in here that she could even think about using to help her escape, and she had no idea where in the world she was, even if she could get out.

Overall, she concluded she was in a rather large deal of trouble. Unless Booth decided to make a magical appearance at the last minute…but no. She didn't believe in magic, and how would he know where she is or what had happened to her, if she didn't even know herself? Did he even know that she was missing?

She almost laughed out loud at her paranoid thinking. Of course he knew! He was Booth. He spent half his life checking in on her. Asking for updates on a case, or making sure she wasn't working too late, or that she remembered to eat, or just to get in her way and be annoying. He always wanted to know where she was. He would know she was missing for sure.

Temperance sat there for a while thinking about Booth and his frustrating over-protectiveness, how he would never leave her alone, how he would always tease her and laugh at her when she didn't understand what he was rambling about…and she found that she missed him. At this moment she would endure any amount of teasing and annoying if he would just come through that locked door and take her away from here.

She could feel tears starting to well up in the corners of her eyes and forced them back. She was NOT going to cry. She would be alright. She didn't need Booth to save her every time she got in a bit of trouble. She was no damsel in distress, as much as he would love it if she was. She set her thoughts specifically away from Booth. Shivering, she wrapped her arms tightly around herself. Obviously the fact that it was day time didn't improve the temperature much in here. Wherever here was.

* * *

Arriving at Fidel Delgado's apartment, Booth knocked on the door. He had no idea if this would lead him anywhere, but he had a hunch. Delgado just didn't seem right to him. It was the little things, always the little things. Alone they would mean next to nothing, but when you added them all together, they added up to a very good suspect. 

The guy had an unexplained absence from his work, he was 'sick' on and off for days at a time, he worked at the home where one of the victims had gone missing, he was one of the few people on the premises who knew about the insecticides in the shed, and he was also one of the few that had access to it and now both he and it had disappeared.

Not to mention his record. It was completely clean, but not the good kind of clean. It was the kind of clean that meant they had absolutely nothing on him. According to the system, Fidel Isandro Delgado did not exist. Apparently the Jacobsons, or their manager, weren't too good at checking up on employees. Right now, Booth was working on the idea that he was an illegal immigrant, from Mexico, if what Peter the assistant Gardener said had any truth to it.

Booth knocked on the door of the apartment again. After another pause he took a step back, aimed his gun at the door and shot out the lock. Luckily he had managed to get a warrant on the assumption that he was an illegal immigrant, as he had decided it would be faster than trying to explain how he was possibly a serial murderer of children and the elderly who, after he killed them, placed their bones lovingly on some Mexican death altar-thing. That was definitely more Bones' style and, much to his distress, she was not here by his side to argue their case as amazingly as she would normally.

He entered the apartment cautiously, gun first. It didn't take him long to discover that the place was empty. There were only three rooms – a living room/kitchen, a bedroom and a bathroom. Mostly the place was tidy, Booth acknowledged, except for the living room, which had stuff strewn across the small dining table and on some of the chairs as well. He stepped further into the room.

He walked around, coming to the table on the other side of the room. Eventually his gaze fell to the stuff on the table and immediately his eyes caught on something that made him jump a mile into the air. There were eyes staring _back_ at him. But no, they weren't eyes at all. In fact, when he realised what it really was, Booth almost wished it _was_ a pair of eyes.

What it actually was, was a mask. And not just any mask. A genuine white, skull shaped mask with gaping holes for eyes and a mane of white hair surrounding the edges.

Oh this was bad. This was very, very bad.

* * *

The light was brighter. Temperance had been curled up against the opposite wall, cold and aching, as time crawled slowly on, and it had taken her until now to suddenly realise that the light was brighter than it had been earlier. Not that that helped at all. It was merely an observation. It was good to know, however, that she would be able to judge the number of days she spent here (if she was going to be here for _days_ at all) by the light that shone through the gaps. 

The only problem with this theory was that she didn't know how many days she had been here already. How long had she been knocked out? Had it been days since that night when she had walked across the empty parking lot to her car? Had it only been _last night _that she had been kidnapped? Was it only the day after? Had Booth only _just_ discovered that she was missing? Her mind raced through all of these possibilities.

Of course there was no real way to know, not until she got out of here. She felt like it had been several days, but it was more logical to assume that it had only been one. The narcotic would have to have been unusually strong for her to be out of it for longer than that one night.

To be honest, she wasn't sure which reality she would prefer. If her kidnapper intended to come back at some point, the less time that passed, the better. It was the same if he intended to leave her here as well, because the only option she would have then would be to find a way out or to starve to death in this oily-smelling, concrete cell. On the other hand, if there was any chance that Booth would find her, it would be better if more time had passed so that he would have had longer to figure out where she was.

Not that she was dependent on Booth to get her out of this place. No, she could do it herself. All she needed to do was bide her time until she had more information and…

…suddenly, both her mind and body froze solid.

_What was that?_ She was certain she had heard a noise. A muffled bang…she focused all of her senses intently in the direction of the imagined sound. Yes! She was almost certain she could hear a shuffling coming from the other side of the door to her right.

She couldn't think. She didn't know what to do! During all of the time she had been sitting here, thinking about someone coming for her, she had not once thought of what she would do if someone actually _did_ come!

She didn't know who it was either! Was it her kidnapper, was it a stranger, was it _Booth_! There was nothing she could do, no matter who it was. She wasn't willing to call out, in case it wasn't Booth. There was nowhere for her to go either. And so she just sat there, frozen in place, as she listened to the persistent shuffling coming from the other side of the door, accompanied by the occasional bang or scrape.

Eventually, she heard a scratching on the other side of the door, and then it opened. For a second she was blinded by the reflection of the miniscule rays of sunlight hitting a small square of glass in the top of the door. One that she had not noticed before in the darkness.

Temperance shielded her eyes with her hand from the unexpected brightness. She heard the door close. She waited for the spots to disappear from her eyes, then she lowered her hand. Peering in the direction of the door, she tried to make out the dark figure standing near it.

Slowly, she saw the person move forward until they were standing mere feet away from her. She looked up into their face…and her mouth fell open. She didn't even let out a sound, she was so shocked...and confused.

What was he doing here? Surely not…but maybe…yes it was the only explanation. _He_ was her kidnapper.

* * *

**I know, I'm sorry about the cliffie, I couldn't resist!**

**If you want to find out who it is you'll have to send me lots of reviews : ) ...not that I'm blackmailing you or anything cough**


	15. Catalina

**Ok everybody, you must wait no longer! A special thanks to Mahine and Goldpiece for trying to guess who it was, it was good to know people are interested! Unfortunately you were both wrong, but that only makes it more fun for me! I'd be a somewhat depressed if people could guess who it was before I told them : )**

**Anyway, no more stalling. Y****ou've waited long enough, so go ahead!**

**Chapter 15: Catalina**

She still didn't understand though. She didn't have any trouble accepting the fact that he had kidnapped her, she didn't know him well and so she had no issue accepting his _capability_ for doing such a terrible thing. Her problem was that she just couldn't fathom _why_.

What possible reason could the gardener from the Jacobsons' home have for kidnapping her? He hadn't given any indication of his intentions when she had met him the other day. He had seemed perfectly placid.

One thing she did take note of was that she had been wrong in her assumptions earlier. Obviously this did have something to do with the case. It was too much of a coincidence that the person who had kidnapped her also happened to work at the home of one of the victims, and that she had been taken not even a day after he had found out that she was working the case.

As all of these thoughts span around in her head she stared into his face, watching as he stared back silently. She was vaguely aware that she should be terrified at this moment, but she was so consumed with the many questions going through her mind that she had no room for being afraid.

Quite unexpectedly, the gardener (whose name she just couldn't remember) smiled at her. Even more unexpected was the manner of his smile. It wasn't malicious or cruel, as would be expected, but kind and…amused. Like an adult would smile when they watched a child's cute antics. As if Temperance was not taken aback enough by this, his words soon made her even more surprised and confused.

"What? Nothing to say? Now Catalina, that's not like you at all!"

Temperance opened and closed her mouth, dumbstruck. His tone of voice had been kind, even familiar, as though he thought they were close friends. In fact, his slightly teasing tone even sounded a bit like how Booth would talk to her.

What was going on?! Puzzling over this bizarre situation, she suddenly realised something else that had been very odd. He had called her something that definitely did not sound like her name. What was it? Catalina? Who did he think she was? Obviously he had mistaken her for someone he knew, and yet how could he? He had met her at the Jacobsons'. Surely he knew…this man was obviously seriously deranged, she thought to herself. Finally she found her voice.

"I'm sorry, I uh…think you have the wrong person. I am Dr. Temperance Brennan. You appear to be looking for someone else. Now if you would just let me…"

She was interrupted by him, now with an even wider smile. "No, no. My Catalina you don't have to try and trick me! I know. The others tried it too. Mama was quite insistent. She never gave in. But then, she was always like that wasn't she?"

Suddenly his mood changed from jovial to miserable. "I don't blame her though. She wanted me to know what I had done to her, and to you. She wanted me to understand. And I did. I understand, and I _know_. I know it was my fault, I blame myself too. And I know that you blame me. It's ok. And that's why I'm doing this, you see? I have to fix it, and this is the only way I know how."

Temperance tried to interrupt his speech but found that she couldn't get a word in. The man was getting more and more distressed as he spoke, and as this happened she found that she was becoming afraid, as she hadn't been before.

"I know it won't bring you back. Nothing can do that. But if I do this for you, for you all, then you can at least have a peaceful life in the other place."

"But wait, you've got it wrong!" Temperance tried to explain, his mournful tone scaring her. "My name is Dr. Temperance Brennan. Not Catalina. I don't know you. I…"

Swiftly he dropped to his knees in front of her. He reached for her hand but she shrank away, and his hand landed on her left knee instead. Temperance bit back a cry. It had not been hard, but the movement had made pain shoot up her leg from her swollen knee with renewed force.

"Please Cati!" He begged. "You have to understand! I did all I could. I really did. You must know I wouldn't abandon you! Please don't do this to me!"

Temperance didn't know what to do. She was certain that the man would soon become hysterical, and then she had no idea what he would do to her. She thought about trying to make a run for it but quickly dismissed the idea. In her state, exhausted, battered and bruised, and with a swollen knee, she would not even make it half way across the room before he caught up with her.

She made herself look at him. He seemed to be waiting for her to say something. What should she do? Her mind was racing and it came up with one question that stuck – what would Booth do? She tried to imagine his voice, what he would say to her if he knew what was going on. And she knew what he would say: play for time. Follow along with this crazy-man. Say or do whatever would appease him until she could think of a way out. Or until Booth himself could find a way out for her.

"I…I think I understand." She said cautiously.

This seemed to be the right thing to say. He didn't let her go, but his face brightened up slightly at her words.

"You do?" He asked hopefully. "You mean you…you could forgive me?"

"I…" _Play for time. Play for time._ "You know what? What if I gave you the chance to explain?...If you explained it all to me…maybe then I would understand everything. Then I…I could forgive you…" She suggested tentatively.

"Oh really?" He said breathlessly, eyes wide. "You'll let me explain? Because then you would definitely understand. You would know what I tried to do for you. You would see that I tried as hard as I could! And maybe you could forgive me?"

Temperance just nodded, encouraging his hopeful mood.

"Yes. I'll explain it all to you. From the very beginning. Every last thing."

* * *

Booth stood in the doorway of Fidel Delgado's living room, watching as the forensics team searched the apartment and carried out piles of potential evidence in sealed evidence bags. 

He had called them as soon as he had recovered from the shock of finding the chilling mask on the dining table. Since the team had been here, they had uncovered many objects, the most promising of which was a mass of all different kinds of candles. This guy was looking more and more guilty by the second.

One of the forensics guys came up to Booth after a while and declared that they were finished with the place.

"Are you sure you got everything?" Booth asked, not willing to leave any fragment untouched.

The man just gave him a scathing look. "Yes I'm sure. The place isn't all that big. There aren't many places to look. We've got everything you could possibly need, and probably a lot you don't need too."

Booth nodded and turned around, ignoring the smart remark, and left the apartment. He walked quickly out of the building, with all the air of person with nothing to worry about, and climbed into his car. He sat passively in the driver's seat for several moments, then slammed his fist hard into the steering wheel.

He wasn't sure he could take much more of this. He needed to know where she was. He needed to see her and have her next to him. Most of all he needed her to be safe. It was killing him, not knowing anything, not having even the slightest of leads. He couldn't even feel the tiniest bit happy that the case was progressing so well and so quickly, because Bones was still missing.

He didn't even want to think of what could have happened to her by now. It was mid-afternoon and she had been gone since about 9 last night, when the security guard said she left work. That was almost a whole day! What could happen in that amount of time? He knew the answer: anything. She could be injured, or lying somewhere, alone and hurt, or locked up, cold and frightened, or she could be dead..._but no, don't go there_. She was alive. She had to be, otherwise Booth could not go on.

To think that she was…well it just wasn't conceivable in Booth's mind. And about her being frightened: never. His Bones, afraid? It just wouldn't happen. When he found her she would be perfectly fine, sitting there waiting for him. Maybe a little worn for wear, but fine nevertheless. He could just see her now, tapping her foot and telling him how late he was. Nothing could get his Bones. Nothing, nothing, nothing.

His phone rang, jerking him out of his musings.

"Booth." He answered.

"Booth, hey man." Hodgins said back. "We've got something else for you."

"Yeah? What?"

"More chemicals. We did another check of the other victims' teeth, seeing as we found some on vic number three. It was a lot easier once we knew what we were looking for."

"Did they have the same chemical on their teeth?"

"Yes. And no." Hodgins replied.

"Hodgins, don't screw with me." Booth said menacingly, really not in a good mood.

"Just telling it how it is man. _Yes_, we did find the same chemical on the teeth of vic number two, the boy. And _no_, we didn't find any on the first."

"Fine. So the other kid was knocked out too…?"

"Yeah."

"The woman, she was in her 60's right?"

"Yeah…"

"Do you reckon she'd be any match for a full grown male?"

Hodgins let out a derisive laugh. "Not likely."

"What I mean," Booth explained, "is would there be a reason why this guy would feel the need to sedate two kids but not an old woman?"

"Well…she probably wouldn't have looked like she could defend herself, she had the beginnings of arthritis and she wasn't very big. I suppose the boy would have put up much more of a fight. In fact by the fracture in his leg it looks like he did…"

"Yeah." Booth continued his line of thinking. "And while the little girl wouldn't have been much of a struggle, she was taken from a property with a lot of people, so she would have to have been kept quiet so she didn't alert anyone." He paused, thinking over his theory. "Ok, is that it?"

"Yep. That's it for now."

"Alright, thanks. Give me a call if you find anything else."

"Sure."

Booth went to hang up but was stopped by Hodgins' voice.

"Hey Booth?"

"Yeah?"

"Have you heard anything more about Brennan?" He asked hesitantly.

Booth closed his eyes and stopped a sigh escaping his lips. "No Hodgins. Nothing yet. I'll let you know as soon as I do. Ok?"

"Yeah…yeah ok. I'll catch you later then."

"See you." Booth hung up the phone and started driving back towards his office at the Hoover building.

The case was slowly starting to piece itself together. Hopefully they would understand more, or even solve the case, once they found the mysterious Mr. Delgado.

If only he could do the same with Bones.

* * *

When he arrived at his work he rang the Jacobsons' house. Carl the manager answered, and Booth asked if he knew whether Delgado had a mobile phone. It turned out that he did, and Carl gave him the number for it without much hesitation. 

Thinking ahead, Booth got one of the technicians in to trace the call, just in case, before dialling Delgado's number.

The phone rang for a long time. Booth wasn't sure what he was expecting. No answer? Wrong number? A full confession?! He had no idea, but he had to try.

Booth was starting to think that he wasn't going to get an answer, when suddenly a male voice answered.

"Hello? Fidel speaking. Who's there?"

* * *

**Well? You know what to do. press the little blue button : )**


	16. Honour

**Many apologies for taking so long to update. It was kind of a mixture of having no time and having writer's block. Anyway, I hope this chapter will make up for it. It's rather long : )**

**Disclaimer: You know how it goes...**

**Chapter 16: Honour**

"_I'll tell you everything."_

Temperance watched him as he sat back on the ground in front of her, legs crossed and face set in concentration. He sat in silence for several minutes, obviously thinking about how to start. Finally he spoke:

"We had no other option, you know. I thought over and over it, and we just couldn't carry on that way. Living in those conditions, with my wages, it just wasn't enough. You must remember. The last job I had there I was getting $13 a week working on that farm. It wasn't enough. With your Paolo up and gone, and mama getting too old to work, and the kids and you, we couldn't do it. And there was just no way I was going to let you do that…thing…you called work, no decent brother would, no matter how poor we were. You do understand why we had to go, don't you?"

He looked up from his hands at her and seemed to be expecting an answer. Not trusting her voice to sound convincing, Temperance just nodded. That seemed to suffice for the moment, and he continued his story.

"So when I heard of those men that could get us out of Mexico, that could get us to the _United States of_ _America_, I jumped at the chance. What they were asking wasn't even so bad. I'd heard of how some men were left indebted to guys like that for the rest of their lives. All these guys were asking was that I do a few trips over the border, deliver some things, and then they would bring you over and get you papers and we wouldn't hear from them again. We'd be in America!-land of the free. And we'd be just that: free to live our lives the way you all deserved. I could get a proper job, earn lots of money, send Nina and Tomas to school so they could grow up and get fancy jobs that their mother and uncle could never get back in Mexico…we could have a _real_ life!"

Temperance blinked in confusion. This insane kidnapper, this murderer, was sounding like your average concerned and loving family man. From the way he talked she figured that the children were supposed to be hers, or this Catalina's, and he was her brother. What she could do with this information though, she had no idea.

She shifted slightly in discomfort. The cold was making her grazed arm sting, and nothing was going to stop her leg from throbbing, other than some serious anaesthetics and a nice warm bed.

She realised that he was watching her again. It unnerved her, his intensity. If she wasn't afraid of what he was going to do to her, she would have pitied the man. But she was afraid, and nothing could prevent her from thinking about what this man was capable of, what he had already done. Images kept going through her mind of the victims, the pictures Angela drew of them, their bones lying on the table in the lab, the photos that had been left on their altars by him, of who he believed the remains belonged to.

Accompanying those images were equally horrible thoughts. Thoughts that soon those remains, those drawings, could belong to her. And she remembered well how the other three victims had been turned into those bare bones…

Temperance refocused her attention, not wanting to think on it anymore. What was her objective? To keep him talking. To distract him until she could find a way out of here. He had stopped talking and was just looking at her, so she would have to get him going again.

She found her voice. "If it was all so simple, what went wrong?"

He flinched at her direct question, but answered her nevertheless. "The first trip went fine. I delivered a bag to guys just the other side of the border, they gave me money for it and I brought it back to these men. They said the money I brought back with me was going to pay for our papers and their fee for getting us into the US.

"The second trip was not so successful. This time I had to go right up to Washington, just outside of D.C. I found the people I had to give the bag to easily, but…but then the worst thing happened…

_He stood in front of three men, in the shadows of a dark room, out the back of a bar. When he had entered through the front door the bar had been expectedly empty, considering it was the middle of the day. His eyes were taking a while to adjust after coming from the bright, sunny street on the outskirts of Washington State. He felt as though they were towering over him, these men with their dark clothing and unreadable faces._

"_You're the messenger." The one in the middle said to him, more accusatory than questioning._

_His fingers were gripping the strap of the bag tightly, but he didn't take any notice. "Er, yes that's me."_

"_And you've got it all?"_

_He half lifted the bag to show them he had it. On seeing it the man on the left reached out his hand. Hesitantly, he handed it over, not wanting to offend these men. The man stepped back, with the bag held firmly in both hands._

_Again he hesitated. Weren't they supposed to give him the money now? He was afraid of asking, but he thought of the reason he was doing all of this, of his family, and decided he had to ask._

"_Um, can…can I have the uh…the money?"_

_He waited, but none of the men moved. They just stared at him menacingly._

"_The money?" The middle one said. There was another daunting pause. _

"_The…the money. You know…"He repeated fearfully._

"_No." The one on the left, now with his bag, told him decisively. "We're done here. You are free to go."_

_He swallowed his panic. "I…I'm sorry, but I was told to get the money. I have to take the other bag back if I don't have any money." He reached out for the bag. "I can come back…"_

_The man holding the bag grabbed his wrist, hard. "You have two options." He hissed. "One: you leave here now, without the bag, but with all you limbs still attached and working, or two: you leave here in a slightly longer period of time, still without the bag, and with slightly less able limbs and body. What do you say?"_

_There was no stopping the panic now. His eyes were wide and his breathing shallow. This hadn't been in the job description! But he didn't have a choice. He had been telling the truth, there was no way he could go back without the money! While they had not openly threatened him like these men, he got the impression that they would in no way hesitate to shoot him between the eyes if he didn't deliver._

"_I…I…I…"_

"_You what?" _

"_I can't…" He gasped._

"_You can't?" repeated the man on the left. "Hmm, well that's definitely no good, is it boys?" The other two shook their heads. He could swear one of them was smirking._

_The man paused, still holding his wrist, to see if he would say anything more. "That's it? Alright then…" before he knew what was happening the man pulled back his fist and smashed it into his face._

_He stumbled backwards and the man backed off. Then the other two came forward. One punched him in the gut, the other in the head again, and he fell onto the grimy carpet beneath him._

_Some time later, he rolled over and attempted to get up. The men had already left with the bag, but not before they had beaten him to a pulp._

_He stood up painfully and looked around the room, still hoping that they may have left the money behind. The money that he had to take back to get his family out of that hell-hole. The money that he had to take back so he wouldn't be shot._

* * *

"There was no way I could get the bag back, whatever had been in it, and there was definitely no way I was getting that money." He explained morosely. "I couldn't bear to think about the consequences of that day. I spent the rest of it wandering around the streets, trying to forget what had happened."

"What about your injuries? Didn't you get them looked at? ...You must have been in a lot of pain." Temperance said quietly. The moment the words left her lips she wondered why she had said them. Why did she care about him? Why did she care if he had been beaten up…who knows how long ago?

But she knew why. Right now, this man was not the same man that had murdered three innocent people and kidnapped her, probably to do the same thing. Right now this was a poor man who would go to any lengths to protect the family he loved. Right now he was a man who had been tricked into trafficking what she could only assume was drugs, and then got beaten up by unaffected bullies, and left to contemplate his death and the ruin of his family.

She felt sorry for this man and his life that seemed to have just got worse and worse, the harder he tried to make it better.

Hearing her question, he looked up at her and smiled. That smile made her heart jump for a moment. It was the kind Booth would give her occasionally. She remembered the first time she had seen it- when she had first asked him to look at her parents file. Her heart had jumped twice as much as usual when he smiled at her…she shook off the wistful memory and refocused on the smiling man in front of her.

"That was the least of my worries, Cati." He told her calmly, with what she was pretty sure was affection in his voice.

"Oh," was all she could think of to say. She was almost too afraid to ask the next question, but she had to remind herself of her objective: keep him talking. No matter how much she wanted to think otherwise, she had to remember that the poor man in his story, and the man who had done all of these terrible things, were the same person. She asked the question.

"So what did you do next?"

She waited as he took a deep breath. "I did what I was told. A week later I met them where I was supposed to if anything went wrong. I thought for sure I was going to die then. But the man was strangely calm about it. In hindsight, I wish he had done away with me right then and there. Instead, he let me off. He told me it was no big deal, I would just have to get the money another way. He told me he would be back in a few weeks and he gave me a disposable phone that he would ring me on when he came back.

"After that I managed to find myself a job. It was the only way I could think of to earn enough money…I worked at a garage on the outskirts of DC by the highway, the pay wasn't too bad, the owner let me have any of the extra shifts that came up. Only I couldn't fathom how I was going to get enough money to pay them back."

Temperance watched his expression as he relived his distress.

"Then I got the call. I met the guy again, only this time he was not so kind. I tried to explain that I didn't have enough time, that I couldn't get that much money in so short a time, but he didn't care. He ignored me. Then he gave me two weeks.

"'_In two weeks'_ he told me, '_I'm bringing your family. I hope by that time you will have our money. For their sake, if not for your own.'_ That was all he said. You have no idea what that did to me. I couldn't bear it, the thought that any of you might be harmed because of my failure, because I didn't stand up to the men who took the money, and even when I was given a second chance, I couldn't do what was needed.

"Only that wasn't the worst of it. If only that had been the end of my bad luck…I went back and begged my boss to let me work through the night, even to give me an advance, any way that I could get the money. But no. Do you know what he said?"

Temperance watched him look at her, anguish etched deep into his features. She almost didn't want to hear the answer. What more could go wrong for this man? Slowly, she shook her head.

"Not only did he say no to giving me more work, he said he was going to have to close the garage down altogether! Business was not going well for him and he couldn't afford the rent on the building anymore, let alone paying me to work extra hours. I worked until the end of the week, then he closed down.

"I was absolutely desperate, almost out of my mind with panic. I only stayed sane because I knew you were out there waiting for me, depending on me to save you." Reaching out, he softly touched her cheek, and she flinched involuntarily. Thankfully he didn't take her reaction for what it really was: fear.

"On the last night, I still didn't have enough money. I even tried to break into a store nearby, but the alarm went off as soon as I broke the window and I ran off before I could get caught. I didn't want to face the men tomorrow, but it would be even worse if I was caught by the police. If I didn't turn up at all you wouldn't have had a chance.

"So I went. I turned up where I had been told to, near a barn off the main road. I waited there for what felt like an eternity, and then you were there…"

_He watched as the peeling red truck with a canvas cover over the back came around the corner and parked opposite the large barn. He took two steps towards the vehicle and then stopped when he saw three men getting out of the front seat. One was wearing a suit, even with the hot sun right overhead, and he walked directly to him, standing in front of the barn doors. The other two men were not wearing suits and definitely looked a lot rougher. One followed after the suited man, the other hung around by the car, glaring in his general direction. _

_By the time the two men reached him, he was sweating profusely, and not just from the sun. He watched them nervously, waiting for them to speak. Finally the one in the suit complied._

"_I assume you have our money." He said menacingly. It was the same man he had met before, only this time he did not seem so forgiving._

"_I…I…" He wiped his forehead with his sleeve and attempted to explain. He didn't quite have enough, but he had most of it. That was alright, wasn't it?_

_Again, there was no compassion in the man's expression. He just gave him a long stare, and then turned to the other one beside him._

"_You know," he said to the man, "I think we need to show him just how important this money is, don't you? Put it into perspective." The guy turned and leered at him, then yelled something to the man by the truck and moved off to join him. _

_The man in the suit didn't say anything, just turned his body slightly so that he could see both the truck and the terrified man next to him. Beforehand, he had just been extremely nervous, now he was genuinely terrified. He had a fair idea how they were going to put it 'into perspective', the man had explained it clearly enough the last time, and he was pretty sure it wasn't necessary. _

_Sure enough, the men went around the back of the truck and stood there as several people stumbled out of the dark interior. Four people, in fact; an older woman, a thin boy, a small girl, and another woman. His family. He watched with a mixture of joy at seeing them again and pure fear for the situation they were in. The younger woman was holding the girl in her arms, and the boy was being held tightly by the older one. They were poked and prodded into position in front of the truck, facing the two men on the other side. They blinked in the bright sunlight, and he stared as they looked around them. Then the older woman recognised him._

"_Fidel!" She cried, and tried to run forward. But she was stopped by one of the men grabbing her arm. _

_He remained where he was, not wanting to test the men's tempers, but tried to comfort his mother with words. "It's ok mama. I'm working it out. It will all be over soon, and then we can all leave together." He promised in his most convincing voice._

_The man standing next to him in the suit let out a loud, barking laugh and the other two chuckled along with him. His mother looked utterly bewildered, and slightly afraid._

"_Working it out?" the man said, still laughing to himself. "You know it's wrong to lie, especially to your mother. Obviously she didn't teach you very good manners." He saw her bristle at this and prayed she wouldn't cause a fuss around these men._

"_Fidel, what's going on?" She asked anxiously._

_He looked at his mother's upset face and didn't know what to say. How could he explain all of this to her? He looked at the boy, Tomas, standing next to her, who in turn was looking up at his grandmother, obviously aware of her distress. The tiny girl in his sister's arms was watching him with her big blue eyes. She looked like she was trying to figure out whether she knew him or not._

_Then he looked at the girl's mother, his sister, Catalina. She stood quietly, staring at him with the same deep blue eyes as her daughter perched on her hip. But she knew exactly who he was and, from the expression on her face, she knew a lot more than that. _

_She, unlike their mother, knew exactly what had happened, how they had ended up here, and what might happen very soon... _

_Her sad eyes told him this. He could see she didn't blame him, if she did she definitely wouldn't hide it. She was never one to contain her anger or frustration. He almost smiled at the memories. Almost._

_Fidel became aware of the man in the suit again when he addressed him._

"_Yes, Fidel." He said menacingly. "Why don't you explain what's going on? Why don't you tell your family what you've done, or haven't done? Explain to them why they are here." He wasn't laughing anymore._

_He opened his mouth to answer, but nothing came out. What could he say? Nothing. And the man knew this. He was taunting him before he tore his life apart. He felt his stomach drop through his shoes as he thought of what the cool, uncaring man was going to do to him…or to his family…_

"_Can't do it?" The man whispered mockingly. "Can't tell them how you failed? Or do you think you might have the money now? Now we've given you an appropriate incentive."_

"_I…I could…if I just had more time, not long…" He stuttered, trying to find away out somewhere amongst his quickly diminishing options. He could almost see the road to safety shrinking before his eyes._

"_No! Your time's up Mr. Delgado!" The man yelled back at him, suddenly so angry he was clenching his fists. "We have given you time and more time. Now it's time for _you_ to give us something back. It's time for you to hold up your end of the deal! We brought your family for you. Here they are, in America. Surely a man such as yourself has honour. Where's your honour sir? Where is your half of our agreement?"_

_What could he do?! He was no sorcerer! He couldn't conjure up money just because they demanded it. _

"_Here, look!" He passed the man a rucksack. "Here's all the money I have. It's only a few hundred short! Take it! It's all I could get. And I could get more if only I had more time, but you can have all of that now!" _

_He begged and pleaded with the man, who just stood there with a look of distaste all over his face. When he fell silent the man gave him one more long look…and turned away. For a second he thought the man was letting them go. Then he followed the man's line of sight and saw the other two men looking back._

_They were grinning, but they were not comforting smiles. No, they were the kind of smiles that send a shiver down your spine. And that is indeed what they did. He felt a new wave of fear, although he had no idea what they would do._

_Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the suited man give them a nod. Their grins grew wider, almost manic, and one of them stepped forward to face the four people they were guarding. The man was saying something to them, he couldn't hear what, and he saw them all shrink back._

_The man suddenly made a leap for Tomas, but his grandmother yelped and pulled him behind her. The other man moved forward to help, but his pal waved him off. Instead he grabbed hold of the boy's protector._

_He dragged her forward. For a moment Tomas tried to keep hold of his grandmother but, for the first time since they had arrived, Catalina moved, leaping forward to grab her son's hand. She clutched both children tightly to her, ignoring Tomas' struggling, as she watched the scene unfold with wide, fearful eyes._

_When the man had towed Tomas' grandmother halfway over to Fidel and the man in the suit he stopped. Then he pulled a gun from his jeans and pointed it at her head._

"_No!" Fidel yelled, stretching out his hand towards the pair. Oh God, no! This couldn't be happening. It couldn't! Please God, please…_

"_Do you see?" The suited man said to him, his voice dispassionate; his face expressionless. "Do you see what happens when you don't honour your agreements? Do you understand the importance of honour now?" He paused, letting the only sound that could be heard, the feverish praying of his mother who believed her life was about to end, fill his ears. Then he continued. _

"_We believe in honour Fidel. We also believe in other things, very similar to honour. Have you ever heard of an eye for an eye, Fidel? Because we have, and we follow it religiously, although it is fair to say my two friends over there probably enjoy the practice a bit too much. Do you understand the concept? If we don't get what we want, then you don't get what you want. It sounds fair to me."_

"_B…b…but…you can't! Please, don't hurt them! Please…I'll do anything, please!" He fell to his knees in front of the callous man, the man in control of his family's future. "Please, they have nothing to do with this. It's my fault! I'm the one who didn't get your money. Take me! K…k…kill me!" His voice shrunk to a whisper. "Please, just leave them alone."_

_The suited man looked down his nose and the miserable wreck in front of him, then turned his face away. Fidel looked up just in time to see him give the man with the gun a nod._

"_NO!!!" He screamed, and his head whipped round to look at the pair standing half way between him and the others. He saw, as if in slow motion, the man raise the gun to her head. He heard her prayers spill past her trembling lips even faster than before and they travelled across the space so that it felt as though she were standing right next to him, whispering them into his ear._

_In the background, he could see Catalina covering her children's eyes, holding them closer to her than ever, while the other man hovered threateningly behind her. Oblivious to the threat from behind, she stood with her own blue eyes wide open, staring in horror at the scene she was so powerless to alter._

_Everyone watched, frozen in place, as the man slowly tightened his finger on the trigger of the gun mere inches from the old woman's temple, from her lips that whispered urgent pleas to God. Pleas to protect her children, to keep her innocent grandchildren safe from the bad things in life, to let them live in peace and as much happiness as he could provide for them once she was gone, for she accepted that God was going to take her away, and that was fine with her, as long as she was all he wanted this time around… _

_Fidel watched through tunnel vision, frozen and kneeling on the ground, as Lola Delgado: mother, grandmother and daughter of God, collapsed to the ground, her prayers for his safety still on her lips. He hadn't even heard the bang. _

_

* * *

_

**Sorry there was no Booth in this one. there should be lots in the next chapter. As long as you keep reviewing : )**


	17. A Living Nightmare

**So I'm actually meant to be studying for my exams tomorrow, but the procrastination has set in again so I have posted this instead, which I guess is a good thing for all of you! **

**Another good thing is that after these last two days of exams I'm all finished, and then I have two weeks of holidays in which I WILL be completing this fic. I know, unbelievable.**

**I hope my procrastination was worth your while : )**

**Chapter 17:** **A Living Nightmare**

"After that…well, you know just as well as I do. You were there. Last time I ever saw you, you were all shoved into the back of that truck with…with mama too. They told me how they were going to do the same to you and Tomas and Nina, the same as they did to mama. And they did exactly that." Her captor said despondently.

Temperance could see a hole in his theory and, being so conditioned, she felt obliged to point it out. "But, if you didn't see the men do, er, what they said they would, then how do you know it happened?"

He forgot his misery for a moment and gave her an exasperated look_. It was like_ _the looks Booth gave her, when she didn't understand one of his strange idioms_, she thought dismally to herself. "Well if it didn't happen, then you wouldn't be here would you?" he explained.

He sighed, switching back to being miserable. "You have no idea how much I wish it wasn't true, how much I wish you weren't here…" Temperance suddenly felt sick, thinking of just how much she wished the same thing. "…but you are here. Physical proof that the entire nightmare really did happen."

A nightmare. God how much she wished that this was a nightmare! If only she would just wake up…wake up and find Booth right there, waiting for her, and she could throw her arms around him and never let go because she would be that happy just to be able to see him…

As she was thinking this, it didn't even occur to her that: a) There was no reason whatsoever for Booth to be in her bedroom when she _usually_ woke up in the mornings; and b) Temperance Brennan never showed such ridiculous displays of affection, especially not to Booth, so it was highly unlikely that she would ever feel the urge to 'throw her arms around him' as she had been currently wishing she _could_.

All too quickly, Temperance was dragged out of her dream and back to her living nightmare.

"I stayed there for…I don't even know how long, after you were taken away. I remember it going dark at one point…but I could still see all of you, dying. One by one…all collapsing like mama. Over and over." She saw him stretch his hand out to take her own…then a shrill sound cut through the hanging emotion, echoing off the bare walls.

Temperance nearly jumped out of her skin in fright. When she realised the sound was the ringing of a phone, she tried to calm herself. She put a hand on her chest, trying to force her heart to calm itself. She closed her eyes momentarily. _God, why was she like this?! _She had let herself become so frightened, that a phone ringing unexpectedly could give her a heart attack. Temperance Brennan was not afraid of phones…

To be honest, she was starting to feel as though 'Temperance Brennan' wasn't here at all. This place, this whole situation, was changing her. This thought was what frightened her the most. Things like this did not determine who she was. _She_ decided who she was, what she was.

She opened her eyes, and saw her captor moving away, fumbling with a phone. On the other side of the room, the ringing finally stopped.

"Hello? Fidel speaking…Who's there?"

Booth sat at his desk for several seconds, holding the phone to his ear. Even as he was dialling, his mind had trailed back to his partner, back to it's usual preoccupation- agonising over where she was, and what had happened to her, and if he would be able to find her, and how he couldn't bear the thought of not finding her, or of her getting hurt in any way because he lo…

"Hello?" The voice on the other end of the line repeated.

"Oh, um hi." Booth snapped himself out of his musings. "Um, is this Fidel Delgado I'm speaking to?"

"Yes." Booth's prime suspect replied.

"Mr. Delgado, my name is Special Agent Seeley Booth, I work with the FBI. I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions. Maybe you could come in and talk with me, or if you would prefer that I come to you…if you just told me where you were maybe?" Booth was not really expecting the man to comply, but it was worth a try.

Surprisingly, his reply was very polite, hardly the one expected of a serial killer. "Yes, I would be happy to talk to you. Are you the agent that talked to us the other day, about the young girl that went missing?"

Temperance looked up curiously, still sitting against the hard, cold wall, when she heard that. _She only knew of one agent who had talked to this man about a girl that was missing. In fact she had been there at the time..._her heart started racing again. Should she let herself hope? What were the chances that he had managed to find her? And if he had found her, why was he chatting to her captor on the phone, while she was still in danger? But maybe it wasn't him. He had only said agent, not even _FBI_ agent, and she had no idea if another agent had been talking to him anyway, and he didn't even specify a date, so she shouldn't get her hopes up too much.

Still…

"Um, yes, that's me." Booth was struggling to get his head around how ordinary this guy was sounding.

"Oh I see. It is horrible when families are torn apart, truly horrible." He sounded genuinely sad about it.

"Yes. Yes it is. So do you think you could come in or something, so I can ask you some questions, see if you can help us figure out what happened to her?" He was reluctant to mention the word 'murder', in case it scared him off.

Temperance saw him glance at her from across the wide space. She focused harder on his words, although she could hear every word loud and clear in the empty concrete room.

"Well I'm a bit busy at the moment Agent Booth, but I'd be happy to…"

Temperance didn't hear a word of what he said next. Instead she sat bolt upright, her eyes wide open, her head spinning. Agent Booth. He'd said Agent _Booth_. He was talking to _her_ Booth. A very tiny part of her brain was telling her that she was insane as she stood up and started moving, as fast as her injured leg and generally painful body would let her, _towards_ the delusional killer.

_He thought she was his sister anyway. He was the one who kept calling her Catalina._ She reasoned with herself, as she saw him turn and give her a concerned look. _He wouldn't understand what she was doing. To him, she had absolutely no connection to Seeley Booth; Booth was from a whole other world._

She stopped a metre away from him, looking him straight in the eye for the first time.

"Did you say Agent Booth?" She asked quietly, trying not to sound suspicious.

He blinked at her for a few moments, and then spoke into the phone again. "Would you just hold on a second Agent Booth?"

_There! He'd said it again!_

"What's wrong Cati?" he asked concernedly, only moving the phone a few inches from his ear, and putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Her body instinctively shied away from his touch.

"Booth. You…you said Booth, right?" _Calm, calm, calm_, she tried to tell herself.

"Mr. Delgado?" Booth said into the phone. "What's going on? Who's that with you?" He was trying to sound casual, but he was almost certain he'd heard a woman talking on the other end…

"Um…" Temperance's heart was beating faster and faster. She watched as he decided to answer the voice on the phone first. "Um it's nothing, I just…um my sister…just hang on a second please."

"Are you talking to Agent Booth?!" Temperance almost yelled at him.

"Uh, yes…why...uh…why do you want to know? What's wrong Catalina?"

This time Booth heard exactly what the woman was saying. She was saying his name…what was going on?! He couldn't figure out whether he was more confused or more worried by this…

"Booth!" Temperance no longer cared how her captor would react to what she was doing. She yelled Booth's name as loud as she could and made a lunge for the phone. But the mobile was held out of her reach.

"Cati? What are you doing? What…"

At the next sound he heard over the phone, Booth froze. This time the woman had _yelled_ his name. Only…but no…only he could have sworn that woman sounded like Bones, his Bones…maybe he was hallucinating, because he was so desperate to hear her…could that be right?

Seeing that she was not going to get the phone off him easily, Temperance settled for her second and only other option. She yelled as loud as her vocal chords would allow her, and louder still.

"Booth! Booth it's me! It's Temperance, I'm here! _Booth_!"

_Oh my god!_ Booth gripped the phone in his hand so tightly he was in danger of breaking it in two. Now he was sure. The woman on the other end of the phone was his missing partner, his Bones. "Temperance! Temperance can you hear me! What…"

"I'm sorry Agent Booth." Said the one voice neither of them wanted to hear. "I…there's something wrong with…my sister's a bit upset. Um, can you call back later maybe? Thanks."

"Wait! Hey! What are you doing to her?! Leave her…!" But the only thing he could hear now was the persistent beeping, telling him he no longer had a connection.

Booth sat there for several eternities, staring at the phone still clutched in his hand. He couldn't think, couldn't process what had just happened. He just kept hearing his partner screaming, seeing her alone somewhere with an insane man, a man who had already murdered three people and undoubtedly planned on doing the same to her.

And she just kept screaming, screaming for him to come and save her…

What was happening to her now? Surely he could have done something else. If he had got more information out of her kidnapper, if he had managed to keep him on the phone. _Something._

He stood and slammed the phone down hard on to its holder, directing all of his anger and panic and terror onto it. And this time it broke.

* * *

**Go on, write me some nice reviews for me to read the second I finish my exams, pretty please?!**


	18. To Be Found

**Disclaimer: I grudgingly admit that I do not own Bones, just this very questionable storyline 0.o ( I figured I should probably do one of these, seeing as I haven't written one in a while. feel free to regard it as a useless waste of space and time if you wish) **

**And now on to the slightly more useful waste of space and time...**

**Chapter 18: To Be Found**

Booth stood behind his desk, staring at his broken phone. "Dammitdammitdammitdammit." He said out loud, trying furiously to think of something he could do to fix this catastrophe. "Dammitdammitdammit…"

"Umm…" Booth looked up and saw a man standing to his left, a computer and other obscure electronic gear in front of him, on the corner of Booth's desk. He took a second to remember who the man was.

_Oh, that's right;_ he thought to himself,_ I got him in to trace the call, in case this guy really did turn out to be a psychotic killer…_

The technician was giving him a very odd look, as though he wasn't entirely sure Booth was alright in the head. Booth stared back, thinking. _Did he dare to hope that it had worked? Did he dare to hope that this man knew where his partner was being held captive?_

"I er, got a location." The technician said hesitantly.

Booth gaped at him. "You…you know where they are? _Where_?! Is it close?"

"Um yeah, well it's just outside of DC," he started writing on a piece of paper, "along the highway. It's kind of isolated." He held out the paper and looked back at his computer screen. "It shouldn't take you more than half…" But Booth had already snatched the paper out of his hand, disappearing out the door just as the man looked up.

The technician called after him. "Never mind then! I'll call your compulsory back up for you. No really, you don't need to thank me!" Other people were giving him weird looks from outside the office, so he slowly turned back inside and began packing up his equipment, muttering something about 'obnoxious agents'."

* * *

Temperance was back sitting down against the wall- she had contemplated sitting down in the middle of the room, where she stood, but had decided that, in her state, she probably wouldn't be able to hold herself up. At the time, moving to the other end of the room was also her weak attempt to get away from the man that had cut Booth off from her. Unfortunately, he had followed. 

When she had seen him disconnect the phone and heard Booth's voice cut out, her own voice had cut out too. Instead she had stood, gaping at him in complete shock. She began to feel nauseous, and quickly decided she needed to sit down somewhere, and to get as far away from him as she could.

He had followed and kneeled down in front of her, asking a lot of questions in a concerned tone, all of which she refused to answer. She didn't even want to look at him, and glared at the floor instead. Eventually he gave up and just sat there, staring at her.

He sighed. "Ok Catalina, you don't have to tell me anything. I'm the one who's meant to be explaining things so that you can understand and…you are still going to forgive me aren't you? I mean…"

_Oh how much she wanted to say no. To hurt him for doing all of this to her, to Booth…_ but the thought of Booth stopped her. He was coming to save her. He was coming, and he would not be happy if he got here and realised that she had made this man angry, if her idiocy had got her killed like the rest of them. No, she could surely keep herself alive until then. She repeated what she had told herself earlier, that Booth would tell her to play along. She would keep this murderer occupied until Booth could come and arrest him. She could do that.

She still ignored his question, but co-operated nevertheless. "How about you tell me the rest. What did you do after we…left?"

He looked relieved, launching back into his story as though it had never been interrupted. "I don't know much of what I did after that. I guess I wandered. But eventually I got to DC, I managed to get the job fixing up the garden. I don't know why I went there originally, but now I know. That garden was where I found Nina last. And where I found _you,_ for the first and last time

Temperance held back a shudder at the thought of him _finding_ her, forcing her voice to stay neutral. "How _did_ you find us, all of us?"

He smiled. "It wasn't hard Cati. They were everywhere, Mama and Nina and Tomas. I couldn't get away from them. At first I thought I was going mad, but eventually I realised why they were there-I had to give them peace. I couldn't save them in life, but I could make sure they were cared for in their death. I owed them that, and that's why they came to me."

"So that is what I did. The next time they came to me I gave them the honours they deserved, and it must have worked, because I haven't seen them since. They're at peace now." He gave her another sad smile.

"You know for a while, I hoped that you had survived somehow. I didn't see you at all, not like the others, and I thought that maybe…but you obviously had your reasons. Were you too angry at me? No, it doesn't matter, you did come, and by then I knew what I had to do. I'm just happy that you are letting me help you, help you move on and find peace, with mama and your Nina and Tomas."

His words made her feel sick to her stomach. He was talking about killing innocent people, a young girl, a boy, that he thought were his family, were her children. Her head was pounding, trying to get her exhausted mind around this insane concept. _No, forget it for now. Concentrate on keeping him talking._

"But, how did you know who they, who _we_ were? How did you recognise us?" She struggled to use the inclusive 'we' that he would expect.

"That wasn't the hard part. All I had to do was look. The last time I saw mama, she was in the markets. For a second I wasn't sure, but then I saw what she was looking at. It was a quilt. You remember that red and black one she made so long ago, the one papa used to love so much because he always said it smelled exactly like her? She was looking at one exactly like it."

"And Tomas, well he was easy. Can you guess what he was doing?"

Temperance shook her head. All she could think was;_ 'that poor woman. Dead for looking at a quilt in a market.'_

"He was kicking his soccer ball. If there was one thing he loved to do, it was play with that damned ball." He said affectionately. "You would know. I remember you used to threaten to take it away from him if he was being bad. And he would say that he would just hide it so you couldn't find it. Just as stubborn as you." He laughed, immersed in his own memory.

"What about Nina?" She pushed. She genuinely wanted to know now. She felt as though she ought to know why this woman and these children had died. She felt she ought to understand, for herself, for them. Someone should know.

"Nina? Well she was different. It wasn't exactly what she was doing, more _how_ she was doing it. Remember how she was always so fascinated by everything. She acted like everything she saw was a new wonder that she had personally discovered. Mama would say it was just a child's curiosity, but it had always been more. You and I both knew that. Nina was just special that way."

"That was how I recognised her. She was in my garden, that last time. I watched her watching as a bee flew around and around her. She wasn't afraid of it at all, just curious. And when she picked one of the daisies out of the grass, she looked so happy, carefree- like nothing could harm her. And nothing can now. She was upset for a while. I don't think she understood what had happened, but I explained it to her. I told her it was just like she was going to sleep so that she could have nice dreams, with her brother and her _abuela, _where she would be safe from any bad men"

Temperance could see the little girl Angela had drawn from her remains, and the photo Booth had shown her from her file. She could see her playing happily in her parents' garden. She was almost glad that her body was too battered to respond, otherwise she would have leapt at the man who had ended little Elisabeth's life and caused as much damage as she could. She was pretty certain Booth would not be happy about her doing that if it caused her own death.

She swallowed her anger and finally asked the question she was most afraid of. "What about me?"

"You?" He said softly. "You Cati. How could I have not recognised you? I knew. I knew the instant I saw you calm down that Agent." Obviously he was reluctant to mention Booth's name, after her reaction earlier, even if he didn't understand why. She still had to look down at the floor at the mention of him though, afraid that even this oblivious man would notice her flinch at the mention of Booth.

"When the Agent was talking to us all about that poor young girl that went missing and then the cook refused to help, and made him angry. I'm certain he was going to hit him. But then you stepped in. All you had to say was '_leave it_' and he backed off. Then I knew it was you Cati. Only you had the ability to get rid of a person's anger with just a few words. You always had a special knack for such things."

Temperance remembered that day. She had been tempted to punch the man herself for being so insensitive, but Carl the manager had explained to her that the guy was a drunkard, and hardly capable of murder, so she had told Booth to drop it. Besides, Booth hadn't almost hit the man because he refused to co-operate, he had almost hit him because the guy had insulted her. Obviously _Fidel's_ memory was a bit hazy.

What was ironic, she thought to herself, was that as a general rule Temperance Brennan, that is _she_, had no concept of how to control the emotions of others, and yet here was this man, believing that she was a woman who had a natural ability for it!

It was a strange thought. All of the other victims had been targeted because they were doing something ordinary, something that was normal for them. But she had been picked out by the one trait she did not have. This was truly unbelievable.

"There was one other thing that convinced me it was you, though." He continued, interrupting her mess of thoughts.

"What?" She wasn't sure if she actually wanted to know.

"Your eyes." He told her. "Only you have those beautiful eyes."

* * *

Booth was in his car, driving as fast as he possibly could without crashing or causing some serious damage. It still wasn't fast enough. He was almost out of DC and all he could think of as he drove was that he wasn't going to make it. He was going too slowly. They were too far away. He wasn't going to make it…

_Oh god, what if he didn't make it?_

* * *

**Go on, click the button! waves imaginary wand to give you the sudden intense urge to review**


	19. Seconds

**please don't shoot me, please don't shoot me (not yet, at least)**

**Chapter 19: Seconds**

It felt like a long time since Booth's phone call, and for the first time since she had heard his voice, Temperance was starting to have doubts. What if he didn't make it? What if he didn't even know where she was? In fact, why had she assumed he knew where she was in the first place? She hadn't told him, hell she didn't even know herself!

She tried to shake off the upsetting thoughts, but now that they were in her head, she couldn't get rid of them. She had run out of questions to stall with anyway. She had nothing left to distract this man from killing her right there, and he certainly seemed determined to do so.

His mood had changed now. He was no longer acting wistful, or thinking happily about his family. Now he was sombre, looking at her with the saddest eyes.

"Catalina." He said softly. "You know how truly sorry I am, don't you? I am, about everything. I screwed up. I know I did, and so I have to fix it as well as I can. I want; I need to do this last thing for you. So you can sleep peacefully like Mama and Tomas, and join Nina in her dreams."

'_Oh god'_, Temperance thought. She looked over his shoulder towards the door. If there was ever a time for Booth to come and save her, this was it. Surely he was just about to burst through that door. He always came just at the right time, only a second before it would be too late, when they were telling her she was going to die, and she had lost all hope. Surely he would come…

…but he didn't. She kept watching the door, feeling the seconds tick slowly past, and he didn't walk through it. He didn't walk through it. Oh god, oh god…

"Just wait here Cati. I'll be back really quick. It'll all be over soon, I promise." He stood before she even registered what he had said. He walked across the room and went out the door.

That was it. Booth wasn't coming. He probably didn't even know where she was. She had been stupidly hopeful. She shouldn't have relied on Booth to save her, she should be relying on herself, like she used to. She should get herself out of this, not wait for someone she didn't even know was coming.

She blinked and finally took note of the empty room. Was this it? If she had to get herself out of here, surely this was her chance. Yes, she was going to get out of here.

She stood gingerly, begging her body to just get her through this, and then she would let it rest for as long as it wanted. She took a deep breath…and moved as fast as she could, ignoring the pain in her left knee, to the small door on the right. Cautiously, she peered through the narrow pane of glass in the door.

There wasn't much to be seen. Another door on the left, a desk on the opposite wall with dirt smeared windows behind it. From the quality of the light, she noted that it looked to be almost sunset, but that was irrelevant. There was no sign of her captor. She couldn't see the left wall, so maybe he was over there. It didn't matter though, she reminded herself. She would do it whether he was in there or not. It was her only chance; now or never.

She took another deep breath, and looked down. She took hold of the handle and reminded herself of what she had to do. It was simple, open the door, run as fast and far as she could, and don't look back. Easy.

Suddenly, the handle turned of it's own accord. She pulled her hand back quickly and looked up just in time to see the door swing into her. Shocked, she lost her balance, and toppled backwards.

She reached out for the door, trying to stop herself from falling, but she missed. She kept falling, only stopping when the back of her head made contact with the solid concrete floor.

* * *

Booth could see the sun setting to his right, and clutched the steering wheel even tighter. He had been driving for almost twenty minutes, and every second had been it's own individual hell.

A few minutes earlier he had received a call over the radio that backup was coming and that he was being advised to wait for them to catch up. He ignored them, but when they told him that they had an ambulance following behind as well, he lost it and yelled at them, asking why on earth, if they thought she might be hurt, they wanted him to _wait_ for them to catch up.

Now, ever since they had told him about the ambulance, he couldn't stop thinking of the different ways that she might be hurt. Of all the things this lunatic could have done to her.

But he couldn't keep thinking like that. He had to stay positive. She would be alright. She was always alright, and he always got there in time. She would be alright.

* * *

**Don't shoot me yet! The rest will be up today as well, I just really wanted to end this chapter here, to make the most of the few cliffhangers I have left. Is that too cruel of me?**


	20. Sunset

**Ooh look, it's the next chapter! And not just any chapter, it's THE chapter!**

**I hope you like it :)**

**Chapter 20: Sunset**

Temperance barely noticed him standing over her through the pain that had erupted in her head. She heard him say something, but ignored it, squeezing her eyes shut instead.

And then she was sitting up, with a wall against her back. Still she kept her eyes tightly shut, willing the pain to go away. Slowly, very slowly, she felt it subside, to be replaced by a dull ache and some very hazy thoughts.

There was someone talking to her, asking her if she was alright. She opened her eyes and saw her kidnapper kneeling in front of her. _He must have moved me_, she thought to herself, fairly certain that she had been by the door just before. She focused her eyes back on his face and tried to concentrate on what he was saying.

"I'm sorry Cati, I didn't see you at the door. What were you doing? Are you alright now?" She felt that it really was far too much effort to open her mouth and reply, so she continued staring at him instead. Her passive tactics obviously worked, because he continued talking.

"It's almost over, _querida._" He paused and she thought his eyes looked wet. "I'm so sorry Catalina. I should have protected you…and little Nina and Tomas and mama." Now he was crying. He was holding her hand too, she noted. "I did try. I tried to give you a better life. But I couldn't do it. I wasn't good enough. I'm so sorry."

As he spoke, she felt her eyes wander. She had the feeling that she should be worried about something…something. Her gaze alighted on a knife, lying on the ground to his left. Her hazy thoughts slowly registered the significance of the object. Oh yes, now she remembered.

She felt a kind of detached sadness, knowing this man was going to kill her. Not fear, just sadness, that this would be her end.

* * *

Booth could see a building sitting back away from the road. Was this it? It had to be, it was the only thing around. _I've found her,_ he thought_, surely she's in there._ He couldn't imagine any other possibility, he couldn't have handled another possibility.

He forced himself to slow down. There was nothing like the sound of a car speeding towards them to make a killer jumpy. He parked his car reasonably far away and got out; ignoring the low sun shining in his eyes, and the deep red colour the sky was turning.

Looking at the building, he was amazed it hadn't fallen down yet. I looked like it hadn't been used in years. Certainly it wasn't being used now. Most of the front wall was taken up with two rusted roller doors. Obviously this had been some sort of garage.

On the left was another, smaller door. Booth pulled out his gun and edged over to it. He couldn't hear anything on the other side. _Was that a bad thing? _He was still trying to shut out thoughts about finding her hurt, or dead…

He peeked around the corner of the building and saw a set of windows. He decided to see just what he would be walking into before he opened the door, so he moved quietly over to the windows for a look. Although the dirt smeared over the windows didn't help visibility, he was pretty certain there was no one in there. Just an old desk, and a bench on the opposite wall. There was also a door on the other wall too. He went quickly back around the corner and put his hand on the door handle.

The whole time he had been keeping up a mantra inside his head; _Please be alright. Please don't be too late. Please be alright._ And it only got louder as he became more and more worried.

He took a deep breath, clutching his gun tightly, and turned the handle. He half expected it not to open, but it did. He entered the dusty room as quietly as he could and looked straight at the door to his left.

* * *

Temperance had noticed that she was having trouble focusing on things. Her head was throbbing persistently, and she had a lot of different thoughts running through her head that she couldn't quite grasp.

The one thought that kept coming back was of Booth. She kept thinking that she had to tell him something…she had to tell him not to be sad, she had to tell him not to blame himself, she had to tell him it wasn't his fault, she had to tell him…no, that one was gone, she just couldn't quite grasp it.

She felt something touch her cheek and saw that it was his hand. The man that was crying, the man who thought she was someone else, the man who was going to kill her with the knife. As if conjured by her thoughts, the knife suddenly appeared in his other hand.

She wondered if it would hurt. Probably not. She needed to tell Booth she forgave him, and that he was the only one who could always make her laugh, and that he was the best partner she could ever have, and that it was ok if he didn't know what metatarsals were because she actually liked explaining it to him, and that…no, it had gone again.

Booth moved over to the door. She had to be in there. Just through this door. He was sure of it. He peered through a narrow glass pane that was set into the door. The room was quite dark, but he could tell that it was big. He could also tell that he couldn't see anyone.

As soon as he thought this, a movement caught his eye, to the left of the door. But he couldn't see that far to the side. The angle was all wrong. _God, what if it's her! _he thought,_ what if it's him!_

He squared his shoulders, made sure his gun was firmly in his hand and reached for the door handle._ Please let her be alright,_ he prayed once more, and then he burst through the door and into the room.

He scanned the room in a second…and there she was. She was slumped against the wall to his left and leaning over her was the man who had put them all through this hell.

"Freeze! Get away from her now!" Booth yelled, pointing his gun at him.

The man jerked around to look at him, but didn't move away. Booth couldn't see his face, but as he turned, he saw something glint in his hand. He had a knife!

"I said move away from her!" Booth yelled again. His eyes flicked to Temperance and back to her kidnapper. _Why wasn't she moving? Or even looking at him? Please don't let him be too late!_

He watched as the man turned his face away from Booth, back to her. He was saying something to her. Booth couldn't hear what. "This is your last warning!" He told the man, taking another step forward.

The man ignored him and Booth saw the knife move in his hand.

* * *

Temperance saw him turn his head to the side, but didn't take much notice of it. He looked back at her.

"I'm sorry." She thought she heard him say. She couldn't be sure what he said next though, her hearing was as temperamental as her eyesight at the moment. Fluctuating between clear and precise, and muffled and hazy.

Her eyes focused on his face, tunnel vision blocking everything else out. His own eyes were wide with…she didn't know what. And then he fell sideways. Just collapsed. She looked down at him, and at the line of blood that was slowly making its way down his face from his temple.

Several moments later the sound of a bang registered in her mind. She would have been curious about how he had suddenly acquired a hole in his head, but she was too tired to think.

Something was touching her face. She looked up to see Booth in front of her. _So he did make it after all, _she thought. She thought he looked upset, which was strange, because she felt perfectly happy. Why was he worried?

She realised he was talking to her, and thought she should put some effort into trying to hear.

"Bones? Temperance can you hear me? Are you alright? What did he do to you?" He sounded worried too. Maybe she should answer him, just to stop him from worrying too much.

He had started talking again. "Temperance, come on. Just talk to me, ok? I'm going to get you out of here. Just try to speak. Just tell me if you're alright."

Just talk. She could do that. She could do that for Booth.

"I'm alright Booth." She said with only a little bit of difficulty. "You're here. I'm alright." That was enough wasn't it? Yes, he wasn't looking like she was about to die now. Good.

* * *

Booth caught her before she fell sideways in a dead faint. God what had this guy done to her? He couldn't see exactly what was wrong with her in this light. It was getting darker very fast.

His backup had arrived while he was talking to her, and he could hear them all running around behind him and outside. He pulled her closer to him, away from the cold wall, and checked that she was still breathing before he lifted her up in his arms.

"You'll be ok, Bones. I promise…please be ok." He stood up, and carried her out the door, through the room crawling with agents, and into the cool, fresh air outside.

A paramedic came up to him and was about to offer to take her from him, but obviously decided better of it. It might have had something to do with the glare Booth gave him. Instead he stalked Booth over to the ambulance and pointed out the stretcher he could put her on.

Booth put her down very carefully and watched as the medics quickly took over. They had her up in the ambulance and hooked up to twenty different things, before he had the chance to assure her he would be right behind her. Not that she would have heard him, but still.

As soon as she was out of his sight, he ran to his own car and followed after the ambulance. He was insanely happy that he had found her, and alive too. But that didn't stop him from being sick with worry about what could be wrong with her, and what could have made her pass out.

But he was convinced that she would be ok. All he had to do was remember the smile she had given him when she recognised him, as though she felt perfectly happy in that moment, and the one thing she had to said to him before she passed out; "I'm alright Booth. You're here."

That was enough for him. That, and the pink and purple sky to his left, just above the setting sun.

* * *

**Well? What do we think? Only one or two chapters to go!**


	21. Lucky To Have You

**Oh, is that potential fluff I see? Surely not...but no, it is! **

**Enjoy :)**

**Chapter 21: Lucky To Have You**

Booth was sitting in the standard, hard plastic chair next to the hospital bed where his partner was lying. She had been brought in last night by the ambulance, and had been whisked away by a mass of doctors and nurses before he was even halfway in the door.

They had finally let him in to see her around one in the morning, after they had given her what seemed to him like enough drugs to knock her out for a year. Since then, he hadn't moved from his seat beside her.

At one point a doctor had come in and explained what was wrong with her. She had a fractured kneecap, accompanied by a rather nasty scrape, which no doubt would have become infected if it had been left any longer. She also seemed to have banged her head quite badly. For a while they had been worried about that, but after several scans and a close examination they were pretty sure she would get away with just a bump and a rather cruel headache.

According to the doctor, she had passed out from exhaustion; not just mentally but physically as well, as her body tried to cope with the various injuries, without food, fluids or antibiotics to help it along.

She also had a lot of scrapes and bruises that made it all look a heck of a lot worse than it was. "So overall," the doctor had told him, "she is a very lucky woman."

Booth didn't think it was appropriate to mention just how unlucky she could be sometimes. This situation that got her injured being one of those times.

* * *

A few hours later Angela turned up. She was on the other side of the bed in an instant, holding her best friends hand and obviously trying not to cry. 

"Oh my god Bren, oh my god."

Booth thought he should reassure her as quickly as he could. "She's going to be alright Ange. The doctors have checked her all out and they said she should be ok." He explained everything that the doctor had told him earlier.

"Oh really? Oh that's good, then." She gave Booth a grateful smile and then turned back to her friend, giving a huge sigh of relief. "Jesus, Bren, you have got to stop doing this to me. Honestly, I don't think I could take any more!" And then she burst into tears.

Booth got up and got a chair for her, then sat back down in his own, leaving her to cry as much as she wanted. He completely understood. The stress and emotions built themselves up to ridiculous levels when they were so afraid for her life and worried about finding her in one piece, and now that it was over, and they knew she would be ok, they both needed to vent. Her way was to cry.

Not too much later, she sorted herself out and looked back at him again.

"Feel better?" he asked.

"Hmm yeah. Thanks." She gave him another smile. "I just…you know."

"Yeah, I know." There was a comfortable pause, where they both just sat there, looking at the battered woman between them.

"So I guess it would be stupid of me to ask who found her." Angela said to him eventually.

"Yeah, well…" Booth didn't really think he deserved the gratitude he could hear in her voice. After all, he had barely made it and it had been blind luck that he had even found out where she was.

"Booth." She paused to make sure she had his attention, and that he understood she was dead serious. "She's lucky to have you. I'm pretty sure she knows that, and you should never doubt it."

Angela watched him think. Eventually he raised his eyes to meet hers, and asked "Do you really think so?" She could see nothing but hope in those eyes.

"Positive." She replied and gave him her best smile.

Booth looked back down at his sleeping partner, thinking about what Angela had said and, for a long time, they both stayed silent.

* * *

"You should tell her." Angela said quietly, breaking the silence that filled the room. She had spent the entire time watching the exhausted agent, as he sat and looked at the woman lying next to him, not taking his eyes off her for a second. 

Booth didn't look up at Angela's words. He knew what she meant.

He thought back to that morning that felt like a lifetime ago when he had had this very argument with himself. The morning he had gone to pick up Bones from her apartment after dropping her off the night before, because she had been too tired for him to let her drive home by herself.

He had decided that morning that he wouldn't tell her how he felt about her. He wouldn't tell her how much he wished they could be more than partners, more than friends. He had decided then that he couldn't risk the consequences of telling her; having her run away from him, or having her shut him out. He just couldn't risk losing her. He could live with being just friends, if it meant he didn't lose her.

But now…now he almost _had_ lost her, and he wasn't sure he liked that decision anymore. What if she hadn't made it, what if she had died, and he had never told her the truth? Never told her how hopelessly in love with her he was? He hated even the thought of it.

But the real question was; what would she do if he told her? Earlier, he had been convinced that she would never want to see him again, that she wouldn't possibly feel the same. Then he thought back to the one thing she had said to him after he found her, only a few hours ago – "I'm alright Booth. You're here."

Maybe it would be alright. Maybe he should tell her…

"I should tell her." He said, looking over at Angela. He wasn't sure if it was a question or a statement.

She just smiled, stood up from her chair and said, "I think I'll go now."

He listened to her walk towards the door and then stop. "I'll say this one thing Booth." She said to him from the doorway. "Sometimes, people can do the one thing that we don't expect of them. If I've ever met someone who could surprise me when I least expected it, it is Temperance Brennan." And the she was gone.

Booth took a deep breath and looked back for the hundredth time at the woman he loved. He took her small hand in both of his. "What do you say, Bones? Do _you_ think I should tell you? Do you want to know that I love you?"

* * *

Temperance didn't feel like opening her eyes. She felt very relaxed, and everything was nice and quiet around her. She wondered why it was so quiet, and she wondered where she was. This was not her bed. 

She tried to think of where she had been before. For a while she came up blank, and then an image flashed up in her mind of a man with blood leaking across his face, a bullet hole in his head. She sat bolt upright and opened her eyes, only to close them again when she was met by blindingly bright light.

Suddenly, her head felt like it was going to explode. She instinctively brought her hands up to hold it together…but one hand didn't move. Slowly, she opened her eyes again and looked to her right. There, with his head next to her leg on the bed, and holding her hand tightly in his own, was a sleeping Booth.

She ignored her throbbing head for a moment and just looked at him. She remembered everything now of course. And she remembered him coming to save her, just as she hoped he would.

He was starting to wake up. She wondered if she should move her hand, but decided she really didn't want to; his hand was very warm around hers. As he sat up, blinking the sleep from his eyes, she remembered her mental list of things she had wanted to tell him, when she had been certain she was going to die.

She had wanted to tell him not to be sad, and not blame himself, because none of it was his fault. She had wanted to tell him that he was the only one who could always make her laugh, and that he was the best partner she could ever have. And there had been something else too…but it eluded her, just like it had before.

"Hey Bones." She watched him give her the most wonderful smile in the world, and she suddenly felt her eyes watering. _It must be the headache, _she thought to herself_, or the bright light, making my eyes water._

But she didn't complain when Booth stood up and wrapped his arms around her, letting her curl into him and cry and cry and cry.

* * *

**Hmm now let's see, should I write the next chapter? Or should I leave it to your imaginations? ;)**


	22. Sweet Surprises

**This is it people, the last chapter! I'm so happy I've finally finished this :)**

**Thanks to all of you darlings who have stuck with me through the entire thing, and for all of your wonderful reviews.**

**I hope you all like it!**

**Chapter 22: Sweet Surprises**

"No, I'm fine Booth, really." Temperance gave him a smile and sat back.

Her eyes were still red from crying, but she was no longer upset. Booth sat on the side of her bed, still hesitant to accept that she was ok. After all, she had just spent the last ten minutes sobbing into his shoulder, and nowhere in his books did that constitute being 'fine'.

He was distracted from his worries by the sound of her laughter. "What's so funny?" He asked, although he was already smiling just seeing her laugh. Even with red eyes and a tear stained face she was still the most beautiful thing in the world, especially when she smiled.

Her cheeks flushed and she put a hand over her mouth. "Oh Booth I'm sorry!" she touched a hand to his chest and he looked down, trying not to go red himself at her touch.

For a second he didn't know what she was talking about, but then he saw underneath her hand that his shirt was soaked through from her tears. He glanced back up at her and couldn't help laughing at the worried look on her own face.

"Don't worry about it Bones." he reassured her. "Honestly. It's only a shirt."

Her apprehension slowly disappeared and she smiled again. She shook her head at herself and muttered "God, I'm a mess," before promptly burying her face in her hands.

Booth could feel his heart physically aching in his chest, seeing her like this. Reaching out, he took her hands and held them gently, away from her face, so that she looked at him.

"Bones, you're allowed to be a mess, ok? After all that you've been through, a tiny bit of crying is expected. Heck, a lot of crying is expected. The only thing you need to worry about is getting better, so that we can get you out of this damned hospital." He squeezed her hands in his and she shook her head, more at herself than at him.

"What would I do with out you, Booth?" She gave him the tiniest smile and he returned it.

"Well, you would argue a lot less, I'm sure."

She let out a teary laugh and, for the second time that day, leaned forward in her bed and hugged him.

* * *

An hour later, a doctor entered the room. 

"Miss Brennan, you're awake I see! Well that's good."

Booth noticed that she didn't bother correcting him in regards to her name. He hoped that was just because she was tired. She never missed a chance to correct people, he should know.

"So how are you feeling then?" The doctor asked her, coming to stand beside her bed.

"Hmm, I'm fine actually." She replied. Booth recognised her tone though.

"Bones, you have to tell him the truth, otherwise how are you going to get better?"

She shot him a glare, but sighed and answered the doctor honestly. "I have a mild headache, my left knee still appears to be swollen and is hence very uncomfortable and the torn skin under the bandage is itching. Otherwise I really am _fine._"

In that moment, Temperance was seriously considering not telling Booth the things she had so desperately wanted to tell him earlier. Right now he was definitely not acting like the best partner she could ever have. Right now he was making her tell the doctor things that would surely keep her in the hospital for even longer.

She looked back at him, however, and found that she simply couldn't hold a grudge against him. Not when he sat there looking at her with such concern on his face. Obviously her inventory of her aches and pains had troubled him. Damn it, why did he have to be so damned wonderful. He really was the best partner, and not just that, he was going above and beyond the duties of a partner, he always had…

"Well I can get a nurse in to…"

…she didn't hear a word the doctor was saying. Something had just clicked in her mind. It was completely unexpected, and yet suddenly she knew just what she had wanted to say. She knew what that final thing was, the thing she had wanted to tell Booth when she had thought she was going to die, the thing that had kept slipping her mind, that she couldn't quite grasp.

She also knew why she hadn't been able to comprehend it. The mere thought of it made her instantly dizzy. _Surely not?_ And yet she knew it was true.

She was in love with him. One of the few things that she had wanted to tell him before she was murdered was that…she loved him. She could barely believe it. But somewhere, in the very very back of her mind, she had known it for a while.

She remembered the morning Booth had come to take her to work, and had found her still asleep. She remembered his exact words when he explained why he had let her continue sleeping: _"you always work so damn hard, I figured you deserved a little extra sleep for once. I didn't mind waiting."_ He didn't mind waiting. She had been amazed at those words, amazed at him. She had always been amazed by him.

She kept her eyes fixed on the sheet covering her and ignored the doctor completely, feeling her face flush as she remembered that Booth was sitting mere inches away from her.

She was in love with Booth…_god, what was she going to do?_

* * *

Bones was going home today. Booth walked into the hospital, heading straight for her room. Bones was going home today, and he still hadn't told her. To be honest, he just hadn't found the right moment. 

She had been acting strangely all week. Nothing really obvious, but occasionally she would try to avoid looking at him, or would withdraw suddenly into herself. He had asked her a few times if something was wrong, but she always said it was nothing.

He didn't know what was going on with her, but he was sure it was something to do with her kidnapping and everything else she'd been through. He just didn't feel right telling her something as big as this when she was so clearly occupied by other things. It just wasn't the right time to tell her he was madly in love with her. If there was ever a right time.

He walked into her room and a grin spread across his face. "All ready I see."

And indeed she was; sitting on the side of the bed in her own clothes, a bag of stuff that Angela had brought her during the week sitting next to her. She got down from the bed, putting most of her weight on her right leg, and turned to pick up her bag.

"No I'll get it." Booth said quickly and stepped forward to take the bag for her.

"Oh, um thanks." That was another thing he had noticed, she seemed a lot more averse to arguing with him lately.

"So are you ready to go home?"

This got her smiling and she nodded enthusiastically. "Definitely." She started forward, walking tentatively on her left leg.

"Do you need help?" Booth asked.

"No, no I have to get used to walking on it. It's not that bad anyway, the fractures have basically healed. I told the nurse who tried to make me use a wheelchair exactly the same."

"Of course you did." She grinned at him from the doorway and waved her hand.

"Come on, let's go. Please."

He swung her bag over his shoulder and followed her out the door, matching his pace to hers once he caught up.

* * *

They were mostly quiet during the car ride to her apartment. 

She still didn't know what to do about her particular revelation. Mostly she had managed to put it aside when Booth was around, trying to act normally around him, as though she hadn't just realised that she was madly in love with him. But occasionally he would say something, or a thought would pop into her head and she would have to look away from him, certain that he would see everything in her face if she looked at him.

For a while she had contemplated telling him, but she didn't think she could bear the rejection. She had decided that he couldn't possibly feel the same way. There was just no way, and realising this she tried to ignore her feelings.

She soon came to understand that that was impossible though, so instead she would just have to accept it. She could do that. She was in love with Seeley Booth; he was definitely not in love with her. No problem.

The car stopped outside her apartment building and she stared up at it. She suddenly realised that the last time she had been here was the morning Booth had picked her up. That morning…it felt like months ago.

Her door opened beside her and she got out, watching Booth shut it and lock the car.

"You okay Bones?"

"Yeah sure, let's go." Her leg was starting to ache with the unusual exertion and she was glad when they reached the elevator.

She had to get her keys from her bag that Booth was carrying when they reached the door, before unlocking it.

Temperance suddenly felt exhausted as she pushed the door open, and she was thinking of nothing but her own comfortable bed as she made her way forward. Unfortunately, this meant that she temporarily forgot that her left leg was not quite on a par with the rest of her body, and when she put all of her weight on it with her next step, it promptly buckled beneath her.

Booth, however, had noted her behaviour and was prepared for something like this. Seeing her collapse he immediately dropped her bag and caught hold of her around the waist, stopping her from hitting the floor.

Slowly he eased her back up. She clutched his shoulder to hold herself steady. Unsure if she would stay up on her own, Booth kept holding her by the waist.

They both paused…then both let out the breath they didn't know they had been holding.

"Um thanks." Temperance said quietly and looked up at him.

Suddenly it hit them just how close they were standing to one another. She could smell his cologne and feel her skin tingling where his hands were on her waist.

He could see every speck of colour in her eyes, and felt her breath on his face, as they both inched unwittingly closer.

Every thought in her head disappeared…and then she felt his lips touch hers.

He was immediately lost in the moment. He pulled her closer to him and deepened the kiss as her arms came up around his neck. Eternity and a second passed them by as they stood there, completely absorbed in the feel of one another…

Then the next second came and Booth regained some of his thoughts. The most prominent of these thoughts was that he hadn't told her yet. They were doing…this…and he still hadn't told her. Surely this wasn't right?

Using every ounce of will power he had, he forced himself to step back from her, effectively breaking all contact bar his hands on her shoulders, holding her at arms length.

"Wait." He gasped. "This is wrong. I have to tell you…"

Within moments he saw her expression change from confusion to shock to anguish and she stepped back, breaking their last contact.

He stopped, just as confused, until he heard his own words echo inside his head. He realised how it must have sounded, '_this is wrong'_.

"Bones. Temperance no…" She was backing away from him now, looking like she was fighting with herself to keep her expression blank.

"Temperance I didn't mean it like that…"

"Booth, I'm really tired, so I think I'll just go to bed. You can let yourself out." Her voice was strangely calm. He could see her withdrawing from him, physically and emotionally, a jarring contrast to mere seconds before.

"Wait Bones, will you just listen? That came out wrong, please…" He started towards her just as she reached the door to her bedroom.

She wasn't listening to a word he was saying. "Honestly Booth I'm really tired. Thanks for driving me home." Before he could reach her or say anything more she had slipped around her bedroom door and closed it behind her.

* * *

_Oh god_, Temperance thought as she shut the door. _What had she done?_ Leaning her back against the door she slowly slid down until she hit the floor. She had known! She had known he couldn't feel that way about her! What had happened to just accepting it and moving on? 

But she knew what had happened. For that split-second, that tiny miniscule part of time, she had let herself hope that he did feel the same. She had let herself believe that he wanted to kiss her just as much as she did him.

It was all her fault. She had screwed everything up again. _Stupid, stupid, stupid…_

She heard Booth bang his hand on her door and felt it reverberate through her body. And he was talking to her too, if only he would just leave…

* * *

Booth banged on her door, hoping that she would open it so he could explain everything to her. If he could only explain. 

"Please Temperance will you just listen? I didn't mean that the way it sounded. It was…I just meant that the _way _we were doing it was wrong, I didn't have any problem with…" Dammit he just couldn't seem to find the right words to explain it.

"If you would just open the door Bones." He paused, waiting for a reply, a sound, but everything was silent on the other side of the door.

"I really don't want to tell you like this, you know." Still nothing. He sighed, leaning his forehead against the cool wood of the door.

"Alright…If I have to…well here goes. Temperance…I'm in love with you. Don't you see? Just then, I wanted nothing more than to keep kissing you…nothing more in the whole world, but it wasn't the right time. It was all out of order. I've been trying to tell you all week, but I just couldn't find the right time with you being in hospital and…and then when it happened just then, I felt like I was cheating you. You deserve to know the truth, I want you to know. Do you see?"

He listened and still he heard nothing. He felt completely drained, like he had just bared his soul to the world and there was nothing left inside of him. Just when he thought he couldn't bear her silence any longer, he felt the door move in front of him.

He stood up straight and held his breath. She was standing there, clutching the door as if for protection…but still there, looking at him with – he had no idea what that expression was. Confusion? Denial? Ambivalence?

For a long time she said nothing, until he thought she may have forgotten he was even there.

"Bones?" He asked hesitantly.

Her eyes had fixed on the floor between them and he was about to say something else when she finally spoke.

"You know, I thought I was going to die." She said to the carpet, her tone entirely neutral.

"I was certain of it. At least I was near the end. And I had given up on hoping that anyone would come, that_ you_ would come. I wasn't afraid. I had given up on that too, after I failed to escape on my own."

Booth stood perfectly still, straining to hear every word she said. She had told him barely anything about what had happened, and he hadn't pressed her to either, hoping she would talk in her own time. This was definitely not the time he had been expecting. _Maybe she hadn't heard him…_

"I think that might have helped too. I hit my head trying to get away, and after that I was too dazed to be afraid, even to care. I knew I was going to die and I didn't care." She paused, still staring at the floor, and he could feel the full weight of her words, heavy in his chest.

"So I started thinking. About lots of things. About the things I never got to do…and never got to say. There were a lot of things that I wished I could have said to everyone in that moment."

"As I watched him talk to me and cry over me and hold the knife I would die by, all I could think was, _I wish I could tell Booth not to blame himself for all of this, because I know he will; and not to be sad about it; and I wish I could tell him that he was the best partner in the whole world; and that he was the only one who could always make me laugh..._"

Booth smiled slightly when she said this and, although he felt thrilled by her words, all of that was suppressed by his other feelings; worry about how removed she appeared; sadness at the situation she was describing to him; and the nagging anxiety over what he had just admitted to her through her bedroom door and her reaction to it; or lack thereof.

"All of these thoughts kept going round and round in my head. The only things that made me upset about dying. And there was another one as well. Something else that I had to tell _you_. But my mind was not very clear – I couldn't hear half of what he was saying and I think I was gradually losing consciousness – and I just couldn't grasp what that last thing was."

"Then you came and I forgot about it until later on in the hospital. But even then, I couldn't quite remember what it was, it was there, it just wouldn't form into a coherent thought."

She paused again for a long time until Booth just had to ask.

"Did…did you remember?" he said quietly, unsure of what he expected.

She raised her head and looked straight at him, and he was surprised by the confusion he saw in her eyes, confusion and...warmth. He felt his heart lift, although he couldn't have said why.

"I did." She told him. She stood in front of him, still holding on to the door next to her with both hands, and stared straight into his eyes, looking for something.

Temperance felt that last bit of hesitancy, stopping the words from passing her lips. She looked into his eyes, searching, trying to find the answer she wanted. And he stared straight back, full of sincerity. _Yes, he had said those words and yes, he meant it,_ was what he was telling her.

"Before I died, I wanted to tell you that I loved you." Her voice was barely above a whisper, but he heard every word.

Now it was his turn to pause. His brain was working very slowly, processing, comprehending the meaning of the words.

"Booth?" she asked in an uncertain voice.

Slowly, a smile spread across his face. He took a step closer to her.

"Temperance." He said back, and then he laughed. He reached out and put one hand to her cheek. "_Why_ are you looking at me like that?"

_Like what?_ She was about to say, but then his lips crashed down on hers, rendering her immediately speechless.

Booth felt her lips curl up in a smile as he kissed her. He drew back half an inch and looked at her smiling up at him. "Now that's better."

She tried to glare at him, but it was ruined by the smile that was still on her lips. They stood there, grinning like idiots at one another, until Temperance suddenly yawned. She'd forgotten that she was dead tired.

She tried to cover her yawn with a hand, but of course Booth saw, standing inches away from her.

"I think you might need some sleep, before you decide to collapse again." He said to her, half teasing.

"I did not _collapse._" She retorted.

"Of course not." He said. He stopped her from replying by leaning in and giving her another quick kiss on the lips. "But you can still go and sleep."

She didn't argue, seeing as sleep was exactly what she needed, but didn't go immediately either. "What will you do?" she asked him.

"I'll leave you to it." He said, tucking a loose strand of her hair affectionately behind her ear. She fingered the edge of his jacket, not sure that she wanted him to leave.

"And then, if you want, I'll be back tomorrow. We can talk then, about whatever you need to talk about. What do you think?"

"Tomorrow sounds good, Booth." She knew they had a lot to talk about, including everything that had just happened.

"Really? Ok, good." He took a deep breath and looked at her closely. "You'll be ok then?"

She took the hand that was still caressing her cheek in her own. "I'll be fine Booth. I promise."

"You'll call me if you're not, won't you?"

"I'll be fine."

"But…"

"…but if I'm not I'll call you." She reassured him, although not without rolling her eyes.

He smiled at her reaction. He watched her for several moments, as if he was making sure that she truly was ok. Eventually he nodded and pulled his hand gently away from hers. "Good." He said, stepping back.

She followed him to the door of her apartment, where Booth stopped. He was hesitant to leave her alone, but he knew he should. He was sure she would need some space, to sleep, and to think about everything_. He_ needed to think too. In particular about what he would say to her tomorrow, and how _much _he would say.

"Are you alright with that?" He asked, indicating her bag he had dropped by the door not so long ago.

She gave him another exasperated look. "I'll manage, Booth." He was happy to see that she was starting to act more like her usual self.

"Lock the door behind me when I leave, ok?"

She put her hands on her hips. "_Ok_, Booth."

He couldn't help laughing at her expression. "What?" She asked.

He shook his head. "Nothing. I'll see you tomorrow then?"

She frowned for a moment, and then let it go. "Tomorrow." She repeated.

For a while he stood there looking at her, and she looked back at him. He didn't know what she was thinking, but personally, he was wondering if it would be too much to kiss her once more before he left.

He decided not to, not wanting to push too much with this new thing between them. As soon as he had made the decision though, she surprised him by stepping forward and kissing him herself. He kissed her back, long and sweet.

They took half a step back from one another. "Bye." He said to her.

As he opened the door, he suddenly remembered what Angela had told him so many days before_. "Sometimes, people can do the one thing that we don't expect of them. If I've ever met someone who could surprise me when I least expected it, it is Temperance Brennan."_ God was she right!

He looked back once at his Bones, who was smiling, still standing where he'd left her, and then he closed the door, waiting only long enough to hear the lock click behind him.

* * *

Temperance made her way back to her bedroom, pausing only to change her clothes before she crawled into her bed. She knew she had a lot to think about, but for once she ignored her brain entirely. She could think about it all later. Tomorrow was another day. 

She let herself sink into the warmth of her bed, her lips still tingling with the memory of Booth's kiss, until she fell fast asleep, feeling completely safe for the first time in a long while.

---**_Fin_---**

* * *

**Please let me know what you thought. Of the chapter and the story overall. I really hope you enjoyed it xoxoxoxox**


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